
] 
i 




V 



1! 




THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 




ADMIRAL 
HEIHAC'HIRO TOGO. 



FIELD-MARSHAL 
IWAO OYAMA. 



Factors in the Mastery of the Far East. 



THE MASTERY OF 
THE FAR EAST 



THE STORY OF KOREA'S TRANSFORMATION 
AND JAPAN'S RISE TO SUPREMACY IN THE ORIENT 



BY 

ARTHUR JUDSON BROWN 

AUTHOR OF " NEW TORCES IN OLD CHINA," " THE CHINESE REVOLUTION," " THE NEW ERA W 
THE PHILIPPINES," " RUSSU IN TRANSFORMATION^" ETP. 



ILLUSTRATED 



REFISED EDITION 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER^S SONS 

1921 



J]S 



^-l« 



,:&'' 



1 



<\ >i 



COPTRIGHT, 1919. 1921, BT 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



Published March, 1919 
Revised Edition. October, 1921 



21' 1^22 



PRINTED AT 

THE SCRIBNER PRESS 

NEW YORK, U. S. A. 



©ni, A 6 24 861 



PREFACE 

The problems that centre in the Far East had assumed 
large proportions before the outbreak of the European War 
in 1914. Since then they have attained a magnitude that 
renders them of even more profound significance to the 
world. A new alignment of races is developing. I have 
discussed in other volumes the relations of China and the 
PhiHppine Islands to this movement, and I now turn to 
Korea and Japan. The general idea of this book is that the 
Korean laninsula is the strategic point in the mastery of 
the Far East. I, therefore, first describe the coimtry and 
people, and then discuss the struggle between China and 
Japan for the possession of Korea, and its culmination in 
the China- Japan War; the diplomatic and mihtary struggle 
between Russia and Japan for the coveted prize, and its 
culmination in the Russia- Japan War; the supremacy in 
the Far East that Japan won by her victory in that mem- 
orable conflict; the pohcies and methods of Japan in govern- 
ing a subject people; the characteristics of Japan as the 
Imperial Power in Asia and a world-power of the first mag- 
nitude; and the place and influence of Christian missions 
as one of the most potent of the enhghtening and recon- 
structive forces which are operating in the Far East and 
which hold the promise of a better world order. 

The materials for this volume were gathered during two 
journeys to the Far East and in the studies and corre- 
spondence of many years. Some sharply controverted ques- 
tions have been necessarily discussed, and the author cannot 
reasonably anticipate itnmimity from the criticisms of those 
who will differ with him. He can only say that he has 
sought to be fair and just. Any one who tries to keep in 
the middle of the rather tortuous road that runs between 
those who regard the Japanese as a model people and 



VI PREFACE 

those who regard them as "varnished savages," and be- 
tween those who assert that the Koreans are "afflicted 
saints" and those who assert with equal vehemence that 
they are "the most contemptible people on earth," must 
expect to be assailed from both sides. 

While the Japanese have rightly restored the ancient 
name of the country, Chosen, and have adopted their own 
spellings of the names of several cities and other places, 
I have followed the advice of the publisher in adhering to 
the names that have been sanctioned by long usage in 
Western lands. The changed terminology has not yet be- 
come sufficiently familiar in North America and Great 
Britain to enable many English readers to recognize Seoul 
in Keijo and Pyengyang in Heijo, or to know that when a 
time-table schedules the arrival and departure of trains at 
Nandaimon, the railway-station in the capital is meant. 

156 Fifth Avenue, New York, 
January 1, 1919. 



PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION 

Later developments in Far Eastern affairs are but a fur- 
ther manifestation of the fundamental causes and move- 
ments that were discussed in the first edition. The most 
outstanding additional event is the Korean Independence 
Movement (cf. pages 374-375). I regret that some pas- 
sages in the earlier edition have been used to justify the 
course of the Japanese police in dealing with an uprising 
which occurred after the book was in press and which was 
not anticipated even by the Japanese and missionaries in 
Korea. I am grateful to reviewers for an unexpectedly 
kind reception of the volume. I am not surprised that 
some propagandists think that I have been too sympathetic 
with the Japanese, and that others think that I have been 
too sympathetic with the Koreans. I can only say that my 
object is not to make out a case either for or against the 
Japanese. I have simply tried to set forth the facts, without 
conscious effort to manipulate them for any partisan end. 

156 Fifth Avenue, New York, ArTHUR JuDSON BrOWN. 

September, 1921. 



CONTENTS 



PART I 
KOREA— THE STRATEGIC POINT IN THE FAR EAST 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Land of Korea 3 

II. The Vanished Days of Old Korea 20 

HI. The Korean People 44 

IV. Korean Customs, Education, and Literature . . 64 

V. Religious Beliefs of the Koreans 81 

VI. A Ramble in the Interior ......... 93 



PART II 

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE POSSESSION OF KOREA 

VII. The Rival Claims of China and Japan and the 

China-Japan War 109 

VIII. Russia's Effort to Obtain Korea 127 

IX. The Russia-Japan War . 148 

X. Causes and Effects of Russian Defeat . . . 166 

XI. The Portsmouth Treaty and the Anglo-Japanese 

Convention 178 

XII. Japanese Annexation of Korea . . . . . . 195 

XIIL Manchuria as a Factor in the Far Eastern Problem 208 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 

PART III 
JAPAN— THE IMPERIAL POWER IN THE FAR EAST 

CMAPTKB PAGE 

XIV. Japan and the Japanese 225 

XV. Fundamental National Distinctions . . . 244 

XVI. Japan as a Military Power 254 

XVII. Japan's Commercial Development .... 273 

XVIII. The Struggle Between Autocracy and Democ- 
racy in Japan 292 

XIX. Social, and Economic Conditions .... 307 

XX. Education in Japan 318 

XXI. Buddhism and Shintoism in Japan .... 328 

XXII. Character of Japanese Rule in Korea . .341 

XXIII. Benefits of Japanese Rule in Korea . . . 354 

XXIV. The Social and Morphine Evils . . . .376 

XXV. Japan and America 393 

XXVI. Effect of the World War on the Position 

OF Japan 416 

XXVII. Deepening Complications with China . . . 430 

XXVIII. Japan and Siberia 447 

PART IV 

CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE PROBLEM OF THE 
FAR EAST 

XXIX. The Influence of Christian Missions . . 469 

XXX. Roman Catholic Missions in Korea . . . 487 

XXXI. Protestant Missions in Korea 500 



CONTENTS ix 

CHAPTSB PAQS 

XXXII. Korean Christians 524 

XXXIII . Type and Problems of Korean Religious 

Thought 539 

XXXIV. The Politico-Missionary Complication in 

Korea 559 

XXXV. Japanese Nationalism and Mission Schools . 586 

XXXVI. Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox Mis- 
sions IN Japan 611 

XXXVII. Protestant Missions in Japan 622 

XXXVIII. Trend of Japanese Religious Thought . . 643 

XXXIX. Japanese Testimony to Japan's Urgent Need 652 

Index 663 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Factors in the Mastery of the Far East Frontispiece 

FACING PAQiB 

East Gate, Seoul 16 

A Korean Official 32 

Korean Women Washing Clothes, Seoul 66 

Korean Peddhng Fuel 72 

Fusan 118 

Unveiling the Monument to the Russian Dead at Port Arthur . . . 160 

Mt. Fuji 232 

A Road Scene in the Hakone District 240 

Nagoya Castle 260 

Bronze Statue of Buddha, the Daibutsu, at Kamakura 330 

Shinto Torii (Gateway) at Miyajima 336 

Procession of Shinto Priests to the Shrines of Ise 338 

New Offices of the Government-General, Seoul 366 

Telephone Exchange in the Post-Office, Seoul 366 

Post-Office, Seoul 366 

Korean Students of the Mission Academy, Pyengyang 554 

An Open-Air Christian Service in Fukui, Japan 632 

MAP 

The Heart of the Far East At end of volume 



PART I 

KOREA— THE STRATEGIC POINT IN THE 
FAR EAST 



CHAPTER I 
THE LAND OF KOREA 

The tide of the world^s travel has hardly more than 
touched Korea. Increasing numbers of travellers are visit- 
ing China and Japan, but most of them pass by their lesser 
neighbor. No famous temples, no beautiful palaces of the 
living or historic tombs of the dead attract the globe- 
trotter. Squalid towns and villages and wretchedly poor 
people offer faint lure to the seeker for the artistic or the 
picturesque. And yet to the thoughtful student of human 
life, to one who would imderstand the deep undercurrents 
of international affairs, and to one who would observe that 
most wonderful thing in the world, the spiritual transforma- 
tion of a people, Korea is a deeply interesting land. 

It is a small country compared with mighty China, which 
it adjoins; and yet it is of no inconsiderable size, ^having 
a length of 660 miles, a width of 150 miles, and an area of 
84,173 square miles, or nearly one and a haK times that 
of New England. 

The coast-line is irregular and varies greatly in configura- 
tion. On the eastern side it is rather precipitous and with 
a small tide of only about two feet. The west coast slopes 
more gradually, and the surging tide sometimes attains a 
height of thirty-two feet. The whole extent of coast-line 
is about 1,940 miles. Harbors are not numerous, but there 
are several good ones. The best are Gensan on the north- 
east coast, Fusan and Masampo at the southern end of the 
peninsula, and Mokpo, Kunsan, Chemulpo, Chinnampo, 
and Yongampo on the west coast, though not all of these 
harbors are of equal excellence, some of them being un- 
protected when the wind is in certain directions. 

The west coast is dotted with islands. They vaiy in 
size from mere rocks to mountain-crowned islands of con- 

3 



4 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

siderable area. In some cases cliffs rise precipitously from 
the water's edge; in others, noble forests clothe the hill- 
sides, while now and then cultivated fields add their charm 
to the varied landscape. When the day is pleasant and 
the water is dotted by the sails of the quaint fishing-boats, 
the scene is very attractive. Through the transparent 
depths great beds of coral can be seen with their varying 
colors and exquisite filaments, the perennial flowers of the 
sea. 

Sailors, however, dread the dangers of this archipelago. 
It was first made known in Europe by Captain Basil Hall, 
of the Lyra, and Captain Maxwell, of the Alceste, in 1816. 
At that time its situation was not indicated on the Chinese 
charts, or on those made by the Jesuits of Peking. In- 
deed, at the time of my second visit, in 1909, these waters 
had never been adequately sounded and charted, and there 
was not a lighthouse or a buoy on the whole coast. Since 
then the Japanese have been preparing charts and placing 
lights and buoys to mark the channels. Navigation still 
remains more or less dangerous, for rocks and reefs are 
numerous, and tidal currents sweep in and out of these 
narrow passages with terrific force. When fogs descend 
upon them, as they often do, it is extremely diflficult for the 
mariner to find his way. Many are the tragic shipwrecks 
that have resulted, and sorrowful is the toll of death which 
these treacherous seas have exacted. 

The most notable of the islands which border the south 
and west coast are Quelpart and Kang-wa. The former is 
the largest island of Korea. It lies about sixty miles south- 
west of the peninsula, and has been called ^Hhe Sicily of 
Korea." It has been well populated from an early period, 
and almost every arable square rod of ground is culti- 
vated, even the mountainsides having been laboriously 
terraced. The inhabitants have not borne a good reputa- 
tion, as the island was formerly used as a sort of "Botany 
Bay" for criminals and political adventurers from the main- 
land. When it first appears in history it was an inde- 
pendent kingdom called Tam-na. At the end of the first 



THE LAND OF KOREA 5 

century of the Christian era, there is a record of tribute 
sent to one of the petty kingdoms on the mainland; but 
long ago the island became an integral part of Korea. 

Kang-wa lies off the mouth of the Han River, and is a 
place of considerable historical interest. It has frequently 
served as a fortress and special refuge in time of danger 
for the royal family, while at other times it has provided a 
convenient place of banishment for princes and nobles 
who had incurred the imperial wrath. 

One does not expect to find mighty streams in such a 
comparatively small country, but the rivers of Korea 
make up in interest for what they lack in size. They come 
nishing down from the mountains, crooked and often diffi- 
cult or impossible of navigation, but usually cool and 
sparkling, noisily tumbling through narrow gorges, rippling 
around bends and islets, and when they reach the lower 
levels becoming more turbid, indeed, but flowing smoothly 
and quietly to the sea. 

The Yalu is the longest of Korean rivers, flowing from a 
source high among the Ever White Mountains. For a 
considerable part of its course it forms the boundaiy be- 
tween Korea and Manchuria, and it figures largely in the 
troubled history of the border. It is the Rubicon of this 
part of the world, whose crossing by armies has been the 
signal for many a war. The heavy rains of midsummer 
and the melting snows of spring often cause freshets and 
make the current so swift that the water becomes muddy; 
but at other seasons it is clear and attractive. The silt and 
gravel which it has carried down for ages have formed a 
delta through which the river makes its way by three chan- 
nels into the Yellow Sea. The river is navigable about 
sixty miles from the sea to the ancient town of Chan-son. 

The Tumen River rises on the eastern slope of the water- 
shed of the Ever White Moimtains, and runs northeasterly 
for more than one hundred and fifty miles before it bends 
southward to enter the Japan Sea within eighty miles of 
Vladivostok. It forms the northeastern boundary be- 
tween Korea and Manchuria, as the Yalu forms the boundary 



6 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

on the north and northwest. Like the latter, the current 
and depth vary greatly with the season. In diy weather 
the stream is shallow and peaceful, but in the spring and 
fall freshets it becomes a roaring torrent. In winter the 
passage is made easy by the ice, across which for centuries 
Koreans and Chinese have fled when they have had special 
reason for getting out of their respective countries with all 
haste. 

The Tatong River was, in olden days, a boundary stream 
for considerable periods. It is navigable for launches and 
small, flat-bottomed steamers to a point near Pyengyang, 
where it is four hundred yards wide, although the channel 
is crooked and there are many rapids and sand-bars. Boats 
can go some distance above Pyengyang w^hen the water is 
high, but the river can hardly be called navigable above the 
city. As the mouth is only eighty miles from the Chinese 
ports of Chefoo and Teng-chou, Chinese invading expedi- 
tions often entered the country by the Tatong. When 
the two countries were not at war, Chinese pirates used the 
same convenient route. The Koreans kept sentries on this 
part of their coast for many centuries, and when Chinese 
vessels were seen approaching, signal-fires carried the mes- 
sages of danger to other watchers on more distant hills, 
who in turn built other fires, so that in an incredibly short 
time beacons from scores of hill and mountain tops aroused 
the whole countiyside. 

A more important river is the Han. It, too, teems with 
historic associations since it is in the centre of the country, 
and, until the construction of the railway, furnished the 
most convenient route to Seoul, the capital. It rises in the 
Diamond Mountains of Kang-wen Province, only thirty 
miles from the Japan Sea. It is navigable for junks and 
light-draught steamers to Seoul, about fifty-six miles from 
its mouth, and smaller craft run up about one hundred and 
fourteen miles farther. Above that point rapids are nu- 
merous. The river is the great highway of travel and 
transportation for the populous provinces through which 
it flows, and hundreds of quaint boats dot its surface. It 



THE LAND OF KOREA 7 

IS a swift and crooked stream, and loaded with silt. The 
high tides of the western coast surge up the channel and 
check the current, but at low tide the river reasserts itself 
and pours its volume more swiftly than ever into the sea. 
The result of this alternate stopping and flowing appears 
in frequent changes of the channel, and in sand-bars, which 
make navigation difficult and treacherous except at high 
water. In 1845 the French vainly tried to find the chan- 
nel, but in 1866 two of their warships managed to reach 
the capital. The Japanese, quick to see the advantages of 
river communication, have spent large sums in making a 
permanent channel, so that the river is likely to be even 
more im.portant in the future than in the past. 

Other rivers are the Rin-chin, which, rising in the moun- 
tains of Kang-wen, not far from Gensan, flows into the 
Han; the Keum, which flows into Basil's Bay; the Mokpo, 
which empties into the Yellow Sea in the extreme south- 
west, and the Naktong, which flows into the Korean 
Strait, about seven miles from Fusan, and is navigable for 
junks and small steamers for one hundred miles, while boats 
drawing less than three feet can ascend seventy miles 
farther. 

Lying between the thirty-fourth and forty-third paral- 
lels of latitude, the cHmate of Korea is that of the north 
temperate zone. The southern end of the peninsula is in 
the latitude of Maiyland, and the northern end in that of 
Massachusetts, and the climate in general is not unlike 
that of the corresponding portion of the United States. 
The summers are hot and wet, but the other seasons, as a 
rule, are exceedingly fine. The rainfall is about thirty-six 
inches a year, the hea\dest rains being in July and August. 
The winters are usually dry, clear, and crisp. 

The country abounds in the vegetation of the temperate 
zone. The hillsides near the cities have been denuded of 
their forests, but farther back one finds forests of pine, 
oak, maple, birch, ash, and juniper. Flowers and flowering 
shrubs grow in delightful variety. Song-birds are few, and 
the traveller misses some of the melodious warblers of Eng- 



8 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

land and America; but the sportsman finds several varieties 
of wild ducks and geese. The imperial crane stalks solemnly 
about the rice-fields; and the splendid Mongolian pheasant 
is abundant. During our journey through the interior it 
was easy to keep our table well supplied with this most 
delicious of pheasants. 

Animals are found in smaller niunbers and more limited 
variety than in many other lands. I did not see a sheep or 
a goat anysvhere, and was told that the grass was too 
sour for them. Deer, antelopes, and leopards are found 
among the mountains, and the diligent hunter may get a 
shot at a tiger. One would not naturally look in Korea for 
this savage lord of the wilderness, but here he is, not only 
on the lower slopes of the hills but even amid the snow and 
ice of the northern mountains. The natives fear the tiger, 
and as their weapons are poor he is veiy bold, prowhng 
around the smaller villages and sometimes even crashing 
through the thatched roof of a hut to carry off a woman 
or child. There is a popular saying among the Chinese 
across the border, that "the Koreans hunt the tiger during 
half the year, and the tigers hunt the Koreans during the 
other half.'^ In the regions infested by these dread beasts 
the terror of the people is so great that cooHes are unwill- 
ing to travel at night, and if they are forced to do so, they 
wave torches and beat gongs, and shout at the top of their 
voices to keep up their courage and to frighten away any 
savage prowler. The tiger naturally figures largely in the 
superstitions and folk-lore of the common people, and many 
proverbs relate to him. The modern rifles introduced by 
the Japanese and the high value of the skins are now rapidly 
diminishing the number of these wild rovers. Five hun- 
dred tiger-skins were exported in a single year from Gensan, 
a rate which points to the eariy extinction of this true king 
of beasts. 

Opinions differ as to the value of Korea's resources. 
One traveller declares that ''there is absolutely nothing 
worth having in Korea, except perhaps a mineral wealth, 
only to be discovered by a vast expenditure of capital; 



THE LAND OF KOREA 9 

and that five-sixths of the country is occupied by lonely 
mountains or scantily clad hills." This is a superficial 
judgment. Mountains are usually ''lonely/' anjnjvhere; and 
some of the richest hills in the world are ''scantily clad." 
Mining can be carried on far more easily than in frozen 
Alaska; which has poured out golden streams. Geological 
explorations made since the Japanese occupation have dis- 
closed a wealth of minerals. Gold, silver^ copper^ graphite, 
iron, coal, and chalk have been foimd, some of them in 
extensive deposits. The graphite of Ham-gyongdo averages 
eighty per cent fine as compared with the seventy-five per 
cent graphite of Italy. The region about Pyengyang has 
long had the reputation of being rich in gold and silver, 
but the mines were never worked to advantage imtil for- 
eigners obtained the concessions. In 1909 there were 368 
mines in Korea: 312 were owned and operated by Japa- 
nese and Koreans, jointly; 6 by Japanese and Americans, 
and 1 by Japanese and Germans. American concession- 
aires controlled 8, German 6, British 5, French 2, and 
Italian 2} The principal gold-mines are at Unsan, Chikusan, 
Suwan, and Kosung. Within a dozen years after the con- 
cession was granted in 1896, the Unsan mine had yielded 
1,637,591 tons of ore, valued at $10,701,157. A government 
coal-mine near Pyengyang produces 60,000 tons of anthracite 
a year. Iron ore is found in many parts of the country, and 
the mines at Changyang and Wuryul, in the Province of 
Whang-hai, are working profitable veins. There is a prom- 
ising copper-mine at Kapsan. The Japanese are now ac- 
tively developing the mineral resources of the country, and 
their thoroughness and modern scientific methods are meet- 
ing with an encouraging degree of success. 

Agricultiu"ally, Korea has great possibilities. It is true 
that the numerous mountains exclude large areas from 
cultivation, and I found a difference of opinion among 
residents as to whether the country could maintain a much 
larger population than it now has. I can only state that 

^ Iwaya Hosoi, engineer of the Japanese Bureau of Mines, in the Oriental 
Review, December 24, 1910. 



10 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

my own observations in travelling about the countiy did 
not give me occasion to doubt. The bottoms of the more 
fertile valleys are well occupied by rice-fields; but I saw 
tens of thousands of acres of good-looking land which was 
either not cultivated at all or so slightly tilled that it was 
yielding only a small proportion of what it might be made 
to produce^ while innumerable hill-slopes were wholly \m- 
touched. Such intensive cultivation and terracing of hill- 
sides as one sees in Japan and Syria would enormously in- 
crease the agricultural output of Korea. Even under the 
crude and shiftless methods of the Koreans the land pro- 
duces generous hai^vests of rice, beans, peas, barley, millet, 
cotton, tobacco, ginseng, and the castor-bean. The first 
two, being the staple food of the people, are the chief crops. 
Large quantities of millet are also raised. Not only is the 
grain a valued article of food, but the tall and strong stalk 
is put to a variety of uses. It supplies material for matting, 
fencing, and the poorer class of houses. The ginseng is the 
best in the world. A single guild formerly had the monopoly 
of exporting it, and its exclusive rights were protected by 
a law which inflicted the death penalty on any one who 
dared to ship the root out of the country. Smugglers, how- 
ever, managed to do a thriving business in certain places, 
but so valuable is the root, and so unlimited is the demand 
for it in China, that the guild sometimes paid the King 
half a million dollars a year in royalties. The Japanese 
Government-General has taken over the monopoly and is 
doing eveiything in its power to foster the industry. 

Less than ten per cent of the area of the country, and 
less than half of its arable land were under cultivation 
when the Japanese annexed the peninsula. With the 
modern methods of agriculture which the Japanese are 
now effectively teaching, Korea could feed double the 
number of people who now occupy it, to say nothing of 
the added means of wealth which the development of other 
resources and of manufacturing would bring. The fisheries 
alone might yield millions of dollars annually, for Korea 
has the sea upon three sides, and the waters teem with food- 



THE LAND OF KOREA 11 

fish. Then it should be borne in mind that prior to the 
coming of the Japanese there was practically no factory- 
population. The development of trade and manufactures 
would give employment to hundreds of thousands of people. 
There appears no reason to doubt, therefore, that Korea 
could easily maintain a far larger population than it has 
to-day. 

Korean scenery does not at first impress one favorably. 
The hills look bare, and the traveller who sees them for the 
first time, especially in wintry weather, is apt to consider 
them gloomy and desolate as compared with the tree-clad 
hills of Japan. But a better knowledge of the country leads 
one to a juster appreciation. The landscape, save in a 
few places, is much diversified. Some of the valleys are 
wide and flat, but most of them gently rise to the border- 
ing hills. A range of moimtains runs irregularly the entire 
length of the peninsula, with outflanking ridges of varying 
height. The range is not a lofty one, few peaks reaching 
an altitude of 5,000 feet, and only one, Mt. Paik-to-san 
(Ever White Head Peak), attains 8,000 feet. It is an ex- 
tinct volcano, and the water-filled crater forms a lake of 
great beauty and of unknown depth. It is greatly revered, 
and not only Korean but Chinese and Japanese writers have 
sung its praises. It is popularly believed to be the abode 
of a goddess, who is the presiding deity of this range of 
mountains. The northern regions abound in bold moun- 
tains, narrow valleys, and rushing streams. The Chang 
Syung and Syek Tong districts abound with villages of 
Alpine picturesqueness. Kwallondong, for example, nestles 
in a gorge that would make it famous if it were more accessi- 
ble, while Kwen Myen lies cosily in one of the most lovely 
valleys in the world. Famous also are the Diamond 
Mountains, in the Province of Kang-wen, which Mrs. 
Isabella Bird Bishop so charmingly described. Of the cliffs 
and canyons viewed from the monastery of Chyang-yang 
Sa she says: "Surely the beauty of that eleven miles is 
not much exceeded anywhere on earth." The Western 
traveller who is tired of crowded resorts with their artificial 



12 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

social conventions may find in the mountains of Korea a 
charm which will well repay him for a journey half-way 
round the world. 

Unlike Japan and China, Korea has no city which can be 
listed among the great cities of the world. It is a land of 
villages, with here and there a large town, and only occa- 
sionally one of considerable size. Fusan, at the southern 
end of the peninsula, is the place first seen by the average 
traveller. Being the Korean port nearest to Japan, it was 
naturally the first to come under Japanese influence. It 
was long considered a part of the domain of the lord of 
Tsushima, and in 1443 the prefect of Tongnai, near Fusan, 
entered into an agreement with the feudal lord of Tsushima 
by which the Japanese were given the right of permanent 
settlement. The Korean nobles who brought tribute to 
Japan sailed from Fusan, and at Fusan landed the invading 
armies of Hideyoshi in 1592 and 1593. For centuries after 
this, and through all the vicissitudes of unhappy Korea's 
relations with the contending powers of China and Japan, 
Japan managed to keep her hold upon this valuable port 
and the Japanese settlers had the unique distinction of 
being "the only Japanese colony in the world.'' With the 
downfall of the Shogun and the feudal system in 1868, the 
suzerainty of Fusan was transferred from the feudal lord 
of Tsushima to the Mikado. The opening of the city as a 
treaty port in 1876 inaugurated a new era, and business 
and population began to increase. Growth became rapid 
after the Russia-Japan War and the completion of the rail- 
way to Seoul, three hundred miles northward. The con- 
trast between my first and second visits, eight years 
apart, was amazing. The squaHd town had become 
a bustling city. Great docks were being constructed. 
Shipping filled the harbor. Freight and passenger trains 
noisily rushed in and out of the new railway station. Shops 
and hotels were crowded. Large warehouses and public 
buildings were under construction. Streets were being 
straightened and widened, and thousands of cooHes were 
toiling on these and other improvements. The Japanese 



THE LAND OF KOREA 13 

population has rapidly increased in the last decade, and the 
Korean population also has grown on account of the em- 
ployment which the Japanese improvements have made 
available. 

Chemulpo, on the west coast, was opened to foreign 
trade by the treaty of 1882, at which time it was a wretched 
fishing hamlet of only fifteen huts. It soon came into im- 
portance as the gateway to the capital, twenty-six miles 
overland. The so-called harbor is hardly more than a road- 
stead, save as some small islands afford partial protection. 
A thirty-two foot tide on a sloping bottom means that at 
low water there is a wide mud flat. A few years ago, if the 
traveller arrived at that stage, as I did, his steamer had 
to anchor far out, and he had a sloppy and malodorous 
experience in getting ashore, first in a sampan, a clumsy, 
flat-bottomed boat sculled by a single oar, and then on 
the back of a cooHe. The harbor facilities are now much 
better. Realizing the importance of the port, the Imperial 
Diet, in the spring of 1911, authorized the expenditure of 
three and a half million yen in six years for harbor improve- 
ments at Chemulpo, and June 11 of that year Governor 
General Terauchi inaugurated the work amid imposing 
ceremonies. The improvements include a wall 500 yards 
long, and a locked dock 120,000 square yards in area and 
26 feet in depth. Vessels of 4,500 tons can be moored 
alongside the wall, and three movable cranes, with a Hft- 
ing power of from one and a half to three tons, make quick 
work of loading and unloading the many steamers that 
make the place a port of call. There are stores in which 
one can buy many kinds of supplies, and for many years 
there was a hotel kept by a Chinese, where, if one were not 
fastidious, he could get something to eat and a place to 
sleep. Itai, the proprietor, was an alert and reliable man, 
who had so long responded to the call for a steward on a 
coasting steamer that the title clung to him after he opened 
a store and hotel on shore, and for years " Steward's '^ was 
famous. The engaging Celestial proved a friend in need 
to many a traveller, doing everything he could with a 



11 THE MASTEllY OF THE EAH EAST 

read}' good nature which disarmed criticism. The hotel 
has now given way to Japanese inns, but ''Steward" still 
conducts prosperous shops in Chemulpo and Seoul. Che- 
mulpo figures prominently in the troubled history of Korea. 
Here the Japanese in 1894 sunk a Chinese transport and 
landed for their victorious march to Seoul; and here a 
Japanese squadron overwhelmed the Russian cruisers, 
Variag and Korietz, at the beginning of the Russia-Japan 
War, in 1904. The population has increased rapidly since 
the Japanese occupation. The Japanese quarter is large. 
Business has developed considerable proportions, and the 
docks are piled with goods for the export and import trade 
of the interior cities. 

Pyengyang, on the Tatong River, thirty-five miles from 
the port of Chinnampo, is the leading city in northern 
Korea. Although the census gives it only 51,846 inhabi- 
tants, it is the metropoHs of about 4,000,000 people, who 
live in the forty-four counties of the North and South 
Pyeng-An provinces. The city stands on rising ground, 
and the view from the city wall includes the winding stream, 
a fertile valley, and ranges of noble hills. Pyengyang has 
historic associations, for it claims to have been founded 
more than three thousand years ago. Kija, the traditional 
founder of the city, is said to have been the first to observe 
that the site was shaped like a boat, and therefore that wells 
must not be dug, as they would make holes in the bottom 
and sink the city. He wanted a well for his own use, but 
to guard against the danger of scuttling the craft, he caused 
a huge metal bowl to be made and placed at the bottom 
of the well. Ever since, the people have continued to be- 
lieve that the city hes in a boat. They placed heavy stone 
posts at the end of the valley to keep it from floating away, 
and they laboriously carried water from the river rather 
than run the risk of digging wells, which would have let 
the underlying water flood their habitations. Pyengyang 
was the scene of the decisive battle between the Chinese 
and Japanese in the China-Japan War of 1894. Most of 
the buildings were destroyed, and those that were left were 



THE LAND OF KOREA 15 

looted by thieves, and the woodwork used for fuel by the 
victorious Japanese. The terror-stricken inhabitants, who 
had fled at the first sound of trouble, were slow to return, 
and the population of the city fell from 80,000 to 15,000. 
It has since increased, but it is only now regaining its former 
prosperity. Few visitors, however, would tarry long in 
Pyengyang if it were not for the world-famed missionary 
work, which will be referred to again in a later chapter. 

Gensan, one hundred and seventy miles northeast of 
Seoul, is the leading city on the eastern coast. It is situ- 
ated on Broughton Bay, which takes its name from the 
British captain W. R. Broughton, who surveyed it in 1797. 
Port Lazareff, at the upper end of the bay, about sixteen 
miles from Gensan, w^as named by the Russians, who sur- 
veyed its waters in 1854, and who have long coveted that 
deep and safe harbor for one of the termini of the Trans- 
Siberian Railway. The whole bay is well protected by 
islands and promontories, and forms one of the most mag- 
nificent harbors in the world. Its leng-th is about twenty 
miles, and its width varies from two to six miles, with a 
depth ranging from six to twelve fathoms. The town was 
opened as a treaty port. May 1, 1880. Not only as the 
entrance to northeastern Korea, but as the nearest Korean 
port to the Russian base at Vladivostok, Gensan is a place 
of considerable pohtical importance, while its relation to 
trade as the gateway from the Japan Sea to northern 
Korea has brought to it a considerable foreign colony. 
The Japanese far outnumber all other foreigners combined 
and have built an unusually attractive quarter. There are 
interesting shops, a bank, a custom-house, a schoolhouse, 
and several other good buildings. Steamers run regularly 
to Japan and China, and the new railway to Seoul opens 
up a rich tributary region and affords easy access to other 
parts of the country. 

Wiju, on the Yalu River, not far from its mouth, was for 
centuries the gateway between Korea and China through 
which the tribute embassies passed on their way to Peking. 
It has gained in importance in recent years as the point 



16 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

where the great bridge spans the Yalu and the stream of 
railway travel from Europe, China, and Manchuria enters 
Korea. Formerly a wretched fishing village, it is now a 
))ustling city. As the first city in Korea that is reached by 
the trains from Mukden to Seoul and Fusan, Wiju takes 
itself quite seriously. The Japanese have developed a new 
city not far from the old Korean town, and modem improve- 
ments have rapidly developed. 

Seoul is the largest city in the country, and the only one 
which reports a population of more than a hundred thou- 
sand. The census for the urban prefecture gives 302,686 
inhabitants, of whom 50,291 are Japanese. The word 
simply means " capital, ^^ so that if the seat of government 
were to be anywhere else that place would become '^Seoul.'^ 
The first ruler of the present dynasty wanted to signalize 
his reign by founding a new capital. He fixed upon the 
town which had long stood upon the bank of the Han 
River, and in 1395 it became ^' Seoul." The site is excep- 
tionally fine. It is not far from the geographical centre of 
the country, in a valley about five miles in length by three 
in width, and surrounded by mountains which, in the clear 
atmosphere, seem to be close at hand. Their serrated peaks 
outlined against the sky make a superb natural rampart. 
There are many attractive nooks of a quieter character 
along the banks of the river. The venerable wall, now 
falling into decay, was built by the founder of the dynasty, 
and is about 22 feet in height and 9 miles in circumference. 
It is said that 198,000 men toiled a month, and 80,000 men 
one more month, in building this wall, which is constructed 
of massive blocks of stone. Eight ponderous gates give 
access to the city, each surmoimted by massive roofs. The 
low-tiled and thatched houses of the city appear "like a 
vast bed of mushrooms." Here and there larger buildings 
rise. Most prominent among these are the Roman Cathohc 
cathedral and the European and American consulates. 
The palace grounds occupy a large space, and the foliage 
appears green and beautiful in a city where shade-trees are 
few. Most of the streets are mere alleys, but those leading 



THE LAND OF KOREA 17 

from the gates are wide enough to allow two carriages to 
pass, and one is a really noble avenue, a hundred feet wide 
and three miles long. It is one of the most picturesque 
streets in the world: sedan chairs, jinrikishas, bicycles, 
carriages, and clanging trolley-cars; coolies with their 
clumsy jickies; women carrying bundles of clothing, and 
children playing or going to or from school; pack ponies 
led by frowsy countrymen, and bullocks so heavily loaded 
with fuel that they look like moving piles of wood; uni- 
formed poHcemen, Japanese soldiers, civihan Japanese in 
their wooden shoes and native dress, other Japanese and 
some Koreans in foreign attu-e; and everj^where, paying 
little heed to vehicles in spite of the frantic shouts of their 
drivers, the leisurely moving throng of Koreans of the old 
regime, their odd hats, flowing white robes and long pipes 
giving them a quaint appearance, like some moving figures 
from a bygone age. 

The objects of special interest in Seoul are not ntmierous. 
Notable buildings are few, and the great temples that one 
sees in Japan and China are conspicuous by their absence. 
Of course, the traveller visits the Royal Palace, the Corona- 
tion Altar, the Japanese quarter, the Independence Hall 
and arch beyond the west gate, a marble pagoda presented 
by a Mongol Emperor to his daughter, who was Queen of 
Korea in 1354, and the great bronze bell, called the third 
largest in the world. For five hxmdred years this bell sig- 
nalled the opening and closing of the city gates with a 
quaint ceremony that has now been abandoned. Many 
small brass bells are suspended from the eaves of several 
of the palace buildings. A fish of the same metal is fast- 
ened to the clapper by a chain, and when the wind blows 
these fishes back and forth the bells ring. At sunrise or 
sunset, when a gentle breeze is blowing, the effect is singu- 
larly sweet. 

Under the old regime Seoul Hterally swarmed with offi- 
cials and their dependents. It was popularly called 'Hhe 
city of 3,000 officials,'^ as that number of the 3,800 officials 
in the whole country were said to be in the capital. Their 



18 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

pride of position, their political ambitions, and their usually 
dissolute lives naturally determined to a considerable de- 
gree the character of the city as a whole. Recent years 
have witnessed a remarkable transformation in this famous 
old capital. Many of the once haughty nobles were im- 
po^Trished by the wars, or lost their positions when the 
government passed into alien hands. A great Japanese 
colony has grown up. The railway stations outside the 
wall have become the busiest centres of the metropolis, 
and evidences of the new political and commercial era are 
to be seen on every hand. In the last twenty-five years 
Seoul has seen more changes than any other city in the 
Far East, but it has lost its charm for "the old timer,'' a 
correspondent laments in the Japan Mail: "Sorcerers, 
jugglers, disease charmers, and fortune-tellers have van- 
ished. We are to lose the tinted yangban and to have in 
its place a modern city with wide streets, large buildings, 
clean drains, refreshing water-works, tall horses, electric 
lights, and for the average Korean a commoner, student or 
working man — anything but showy — making altogether a 
wonderful contrast with the loathsome alleys, dreadfully 
smelling corners, one-stoiy buildings, packs of grinning, 
mangy dogs, presided over by the swell gentleman in green 
and blue silk, quilted and padded trousers, huge spectacles 
and waving fan." 

There are other interesting places, not large, indeed, and 
seldom visited by the traveller who is hunying on the 
railway from Japan to China, but well worth a visit. 
Songdo, fifty miles northeast of Seoul, was the capital of 
Korea for over four hundred years (960-1392). Its former 
glory has departed, but it is still a place of considerable 
note. It is on the railway-line from Seoul to Gensan, and 
is the central city of a rich and populous region. Taiku, 
about a hundred miles north of Fusan, is a provincial cap- 
ital which the Japanese have made the administrative 
centre of an extensive region in southern Korea. Andong, 
in southeastern Korea, is a fine old provincial capital, 
famous for the mmiber of its Confucian scholars. Kangkai, 



THE LAND OF KOREA 19 

in the far northeast, is situated amid some of the most 
beautiful sceneiy in Asia. Haiju I have described in an- 
other chapter. Mokpo, near the southwestern end of the 
peninsula; is a small place but important on account of its 
excellent harbor, and was opened as a treaty port October 
1, 1897. Kunsan, picturesquely located near the mouth 
of the Changpo River, about one hundred and fift}^ miles 
south of Chemulpo, was designated as a treaty port May 1, 
1898. Chunju, the family seat of the last reigning dynasty, 
and the capital of North ChuUa Province, is a walled city 
of 25,000 inhabitants. Chungju is the mihtary capital of 
the North and South Chung Cheng provinces, and its 
market-place is thronged with 5,000 people every five days. 
Small cities and market towns, with populations ranging 
from 5,000 to 12,000 each, are numerous, and villages are 
innumerable. Several places which are of comparatively 
small political or commercial importance are the centres 
of missionary work of large significance. I shall recur to 
this in a later chapter. 



CHAPTER II 
THE VANISHED DAYS OF OLD KOREA 

Korea is among the latest of the nations to become 
known to the Western world. Asia, indeed, has been more 
or less familiar with it from a remote antiquity. The en- 
voys of Persia met those of Korea at the capital of China 
more than two thousand years ago, and the contact must 
have been closer and more frequent than a casual meeting, 
for ^^ Korean art shows the undoubted influence of Persia."^ 
Enteiprising Arab merchants, too, in their trips to China, 
early learned of the great peninsula, and some of them 
crossed the narrow sea between the Province of Shantimg 
and Korea. As far back as the ninth century, Khordadbeh, 
an Arab geographer, referred to the ^^high mountains" 
which "rise up densely across from Kantu in the land of 
Sila," and says that "Mussulmans who visit this country 
often allow themselves, through the advantages of the same, 
to be induced to settle there." This is undoubtedly a 
reference to Korea, as the Chinese name for that kingdom 
was Sinlo, and Sila was an easy Arabic corruption. 

Of the aboriginal inhabitants of Korea nothing is known. 
They early became extinct, except in so far as they were 
assimilated by alien conquerors. Modern Koreans are 
descendants of peoples that came from the region now 
known as Manchuria. They have many quaint legends 
as to their origin, most of which go back to mythical gods 
or goddesses. The most interesting traditions centre about 
Edja, or Ki-tsze, in the twelfth centuiy before the Christian 
era. He was said to be a Chinese mandarin of scholarly 
attainments and high character, who was a counsellor of 
the cruel and evil-minded Emperor, Chow Sin, the last ruler 

^William Elliot Griflis, Korea the Hermit Nation, to whose careful collec- 
tion of early historical material the reader is referred for a detailed narrative 
of events that I have epitomized in this chapter. 

20 



THE VANISHED DAYS OF OLD KOREA 21 

of the Shang dynasty. The earnest efforts of Ki-tsze to 
induce him to rectify the gross abuses of his government 
only excited the wrath of the monarch, who brutally mur- 
dered the friends of Kija, and threw the sage himself into 
prison. A revolution ended the sway of Chow Sin, and the 
successful revolutionist, Wu Wang, released Kija and 
offered him the post of prime minister. But sorely as 
Ki-tsze had suffered from the caprice of Chow Sin, his in- 
flexible conscience recognized him as a lawful King, and 
would not permit him to ally himself with a usurper, how- 
ever friendly. So at the head of about 5,000 followers, he 
migrated 1122 B.C. to the northeast, where he founded a 
kingdom. Originally this kingdom does not appear to 
have been in Korea at all, but in southern Manchuria. 
It gradually extended its boimdaries until its southern line 
reached the Tatong River, The last King of the earher 
Tangun dynasty fled before the mighty Kija, and took 
refuge in Kuwul Kuwul Mountain, in Whang-hai Province, 
where he died in exile and humihation. 

In the second century B. C, the Chinese emperors of the 
Han dynasty warred with the descendants of Ki-tsze, and 
after a long and tumultuous series of victories and defeats, 
the kingdom was finally extinguished, 107 B. C, and its 
territory was annexed to China. The throneless kings of 
the Hne of Ki-tsze dwindled till 9 A. D., when the last one 
died, and the line became extinct. None of the many 
monarchs of that dynasty of more than a thousand years 
left any reputation, except the illustrious foimder. He has 
several alleged graves north of the Yalu, where at least the 
greater part of his reign was spent. The tomb at Pyeng- 
yang, on a hill a short distance beyond the north wall, is 
the one most highly reverenced, though there is no rehable 
evidence that it contains his body. A stone tablet on the 
road below bears an inscription to the effect that those who 
approach on horseback should dismount at so sacred a 
place. A beautiful grove shades the tomb. Ponderous 
images guard the spot, and a large flat stone serves for the 
sacrifices which are offered to the spirit of the mighty dead. 



21^ HIE MASTERY OF THE PAR EAST 

The story of Kija, however, is not above suspicion from 
the view-point of historical criticism. The period of Kija 
and his successors (1122 B. C.-0 A. D.) presents such a 
jumble of facts, myths, and legends that it is often im- 
possible to separate them. There is nothing improbable 
in the story that a great Chinese mandarin incurred the 
wrath of his Emperor, migrated to Korea, gained ascen- 
dancy over the primitive people that he found there, and 
introduced a more stable and ci\ilized order among them. 
But definite dates and other important data are uncertain. 
Indeed it has been conjectured that the kingdom founded 
by Kija was the Fuyu, another now forgotten state. But 
history or legend, or both, one's imagination is kindled by 
the story of that ancient migration and its results, and one 
longs for details to fill in its meagre outlines. In the days 
of Samuel, prophet of Israel, and Tiglath-Pileser, King of 
Assyria, five hundred years before Nabopolassar founded 
the Chaldean dynasty, while Athens was an obscure village, 
Rome was yet unheard of, and Europe was a wilderness 
inhabited only by savage tribes, this cultivated Chinese 
noble is said to have laid the foundations of social order in 
northern Korea. His colossal figure dominates the early 
history of Korea much as Abraham dominates that of the 
Hebrews. He is credited with introducing a written lan- 
guage, establishing stable government, enacting wise laws, 
and developing a civilization that was high in comparison 
with the barbarism he found. To this day the inhabitants 
of Pyengyang point to a square field as the identical ground 
where Kija laid out a model farm in nine divisions, the 
people to till eight for themselves, and the ninth for the 
government. The remains of the massive wall that he is 
supposed to have built may still be seen, though successive 
repairs and rebuildings have left little of the original struc- 
ture. It follows the river bank for miles, and indicates a 
city of considerably larger size than the present one. 

It is not surprising that the Koreans boast of their an- 
tiquity as one of the oldest nations in the world. Novem- 
ber 25, 1801, the King wrote to the Emperor of China: 



THE VANISHED DAYS OF OLD KOREA 23 

^'His Imperial Majesty knows that since the time when the 
remnants of the army of the Yin dynasty migrated to the 
East (1122 B. C), the Httle kingdom has always been dis- 
tinguished by its exactness in fulfilling all that the rites 
prescribe, justice and loyalty, and in general by fidelity 
to her duties." 

January 25, 1802, an edict against Christianity declared 
that ^Hhe Kingdom granted to Ki-tsze has enjoyed great 
peace during four hundred years (since the establishment 
of the ruling dynasty), in all the extent of its territory of 
two thousand ri and more"; and when the American ad- 
miral, John Rodgers, tried to make a treaty in 1871, the 
Korean Government proudly replied that "Korea was 
satisfied with her civihzation of four thousand years, and 
wanted no other." 

While Ki-tsze was doubtless the civilizer and lawgiver 
of early Korea, it is not at all certain that the Koreans of 
to-day should regard him as the founder of their na- 
tion. Rather do we look to the people called Korai, 
who originally came from a region north of the Sungari 
River, in what is now known as Manchuria. Various mi- 
grations from this region, led by powerful chieftains, re- 
sulted in the development of the petty kingdoms of Korai, 
Shinra, and Hiaksai, and for centuries the histoiy of the 
coimtry largely centred in their courts, their wars with one 
another and with China, and their changing boxmdaries 
as the tides of victory and defeat ebbed and flowed. By 
the seventh century Korai had gamed the mastery from the 
Sea of Japan to the Liao River, and of the peninsula down 
to the Han River. The five pro^dnces of the kingdom con- 
tained millions of people, and there were no less than a 
hundred and seventy-six cities. The warfare between 
Korai and Shinra was chronic, but the doughty Koraians 
would have held their own if it had not been for the Chinese, 
whose succeeding invasions proved overwhelming, and after 
a history of more than seven hundred years the kingdom 
of Korai was annexed to China. 

To Hiaksai Korea is indebted for the introduction of the 



24 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

writings of Mencius and Confucius, and the literaiy cul- 
ture that they fostered easily made Hiaksai the intellectual 
centre of the peninsula. In the fifth century the kingdom 
had become strong enough to defeat a Chinese army; but 
internecine strife and constant wars with border kingdoms 
and with the powerful and usually victorious Chinese grad- 
ually weakened the people, until, in the sixth centuiy, 
the devastated land became a part of the Celestial Empire. 

Shinra was a proud kingdom whose people were for a 
time farther advanced in civilization than any other people 
of ancient Korea. They cultivated the arts, built walls 
around their cities, fortified strategic posts, used horses, 
oxen, and wagons, made silk, smelted ore, manufactured 
iron, and traded with other kingdoms, including Japan. 
In the days of its greatest power Shinra occupied all the 
eastern half of Korea, from the Ever White Mountains in 
the north to the southernmost point of the peninsula. 
Its Chinese origin and occasional alliances with the Chinese 
Empire brought to it the principles and benefits of Chinese 
civilization, while its nearness to Japan and, for a time, its 
subjugation by the Japanese opened to it whatever advan- 
tages the Japan of that day possessed; and they were not 
small. Shinra was the last of the three kingdoms to fall. For 
two centuries after Hiaksai and Korai had been conquered 
by China, Shinra continued to exist, though civil war 
sadly diminished its power. Altogether, the kingdom of 
Shinra lasted nearly a thousand years, and her three royal 
families boasted fifty-five kings. But in 934 the end came. 

The next great wave of population to reach and influ- 
ence Korea emanated from that mysterious fountainhead 
of nations, northern Manchuria and MongoHa. Forth from 
this region there poured in the latter part of the ninth and 
the early part of the tenth centuries the fierce hordes of 
the Kitan tribes, breaking up the kingdom of Puhai, which 
had been founded in 700 A. D., and whose capital was the 
still important city of Kirin. Multitudes of the defeated 
people of Puhai emigrated southward and repopulated the 
devastated valleys of northern Korea. The infusion of new 



THE VANISHED DAYS OF OLD KOREA 25 

blood brought vigor to a race which was fast becoming 
decadent, and with comparative ease the ambitious soldier- 
king, Wang-ken, brought all Korea under his sway, and 
fixed his capital at Sunto (Kai-seng). Thus for the first 
time the whole peninsula was imited imder one government. 
Wang-ken died in 945, but the dynasty that he founded 
endured for four centuries, and Sunto became a centre of 
wealth and learning, enjoying its dignity as the residence 
of the royal family till the fall of the dynasty, in 1392. 
For a time the kingdom included not only the whole of 
m.odem Korea, but a considerable region north of the 
Yalu. But wars with the Emperor of Kitan resulted, in the 
early part of the eleventh century, in the loss of the Man- 
churian territoiy. From that time, the Yalu remained the 
boundar}^ of Korea, and to-day, after the lapse of nearly a 
thousand years, the boimds of Korea remain imchanged. 

In the thirteenth centuiy Korea felt the bloody hand of 
one of the mightiest of world conquerors. Few names in 
history are identified with more thrilling and yet more 
tragic events than the dread name of Genghis Khan. He 
also came from that breeding place of invaders, Mongoha. 
A Japanese writer, K. Suyematz, claims that Genghis Khan 
was none other than the Japanese warrior and hero, Yo- 
shitsune, who was born in 1159, became the general who 
conquered the Tau-a family, and having incurred the 
jealousy of his brother Yoritomo, fled to Manchuria, where 
his commanding talents made him the chief of the fierce 
and predatory Mongol tribes. Be this as it may, in 1206 
a great chief of the Mongols named Yezokai, who had uni- 
fied and led to repeated triumphs the hitherto disorganized 
bands of northern horsemen, proclaimed himself King under 
the name of Genghis Khan and began a career of conquest. 
In half a decade he had subdued the warlike Kitans, and 
by 1213 the Great Wall of China was pierced and his hosts 
were masters of everything north of the Yalu. With the 
lust for power now fully roused, Genghis Khan conceived 
the bold idea of conquering the world. How his invincible 
and terrible horsemen swept over China and clear across 



J(j TflE MASTERY OF THE FAU EAST 

Asia to Europe, carrying consternation and min wherever 
they went, eveiy student of history knows. But less has 
been written of the division of the Mongol host which 
sought to cany out the ambition of Genghis Khan in Korea 
and Japan. The former was an easy prey, and in 1218 the 
King of Korea became a vassal of Genghis Khan. The 
murder of a Mongol envoy, in 1231, led to an invasion in 
which Korea suffered hea\dly. The Mongol officials were 
so severe in their rule that even Korean patience was ex- 
hausted, and they were assassinated. Thereupon another 
Mongol army came in 1241, and inflicted such dire ven- 
geance that the prostrate nation made no further resistance. 
The repeated efforts to conquer Japan, made by Genghis 
Khan and his famous grandson Khu-blai Khan, were less 
successful, and the Mongol occupation of Korea was brief, 
as the empire of Genghis Khan, like that of the world- 
ambitious Alexander the Great, fell to pieces soon after 
the death of his successor. From the view-point of history, 
the subjugation of Korea by Genghis Khan was merel}^ an 
episode, terrible at the time, but leaving no appreciable 
mark on Korean customs or institutions. 

The modern Korean dynastj^ dates from the fall of the 
Wang dynasty, in 1392. The last King of that line was so 
cruel and dissolute that his subjects became restless and 
sullen. When he incurred the anger of China by refusing 
to give pledges of vassalage, Ni Taijo, the ambitious and 
talented general of the army and the father-in-law of the 
King, took advantage of the opportunity to depose him. 
Prompt acknowledgment of the suzerainty of China secured 
the friendship and support of the Emperor, and Ni Taijo 
was soon firmly established on the throne, to the joy of the 
Koreans, with whom he was very popular. The capital 
was transferred to Han Yang, which took the name Seoul. 
The King buHt the wall which still stands, improved the 
administration of government, and divided the country into 
the eight provinces, or do, whose boundaries have remained 
to this day. The name Korea, or "Morning Calm,'' which 
had been dropped during the troubled period which began 



THE ^ ANISHED DAYS OF OLD KOREA 27 

with the Christian era, was resumed, and Korea entered 
upon an era of peace and prosperity. The descendants of 
Ni Taijo ruled in uninterrupted succession until the annexa- 
tion of Korea by Japan, in 1910, and the last Emperor 
proudly traced his Hneage back to him, although he was not 
in the direct line of descent. 

Old Korea was feudal. There was no such caste system 
as in India, but society was rigidly divided into various 
grades: the royal family, nobles, officials and literary men, 
farmers, and artisans. The lowest class was subdivided 
into 'Hhe seven vile callings" of merchants, boatmen, jail- 
ers, postal-slaves, monks, butchers, and sorcerers. While 
the merchant was at the head of the latter list, he belonged 
to one of the "vile callings," on the lowest round of the 
social ladder, and the monk was even nearer the bottom, 
only the butcher and sorcerer being below him. 

The government w^as a despotism of the patriarchal type. 
The Emperor was believed to i-ule by di\dne right and to 
be above wrong-doing. All abuses were charged to the 
ministers and subordinate officials who failed to do the 
will of the sovereign. There was an official censor whose 
alleged duty it was to call the ro^^al attention to evils, but 
he would have been badly overworked if he had faithfully 
performed his duties; and even then, such is the Asiatic 
fondness for hyperbole and self-depreciation, his writings 
would not have been seriously applied to the divinity on 
the throne, if indeed his Majesty ever saw them. 

The person of the Emperor was sacred, and by immemorial 
tradition, iron must never be permitted to touch it. It is 
said that King Cheng-jong died of an abscess in the year 
1800 because it was not thought proper that steel should 
be used to lance it. No one was permitted to ride past the 
palace. No matter how high the dignitary, he must leave 
his chair or dismoxmt from his pony and walk. When his 
Majesty left the royal precincts extraordinary efforts were 
made to guard his person. The old Emperor probably did 
not know how filthy and wretched the streets of his capital 
were, for he saw them only at rare intervals after they had 



28 THE MASTERY OF THE FAU EAST 

been carefully cleaned for his passage. He would not have 
cared much if he had known, for his own grounds would 
have given a Dutch or Yankee housewife nervous prostra- 
tion. It was ^^ lese-majesty'^ for any one to look down 
upon the Emperor, and in order to prevent this the windows 
of the houses upon the street through which the Emperor 
passed were carefully sealed so that no one could peer 
through them. Every door had to be closed, and the owner 
of each house was required to kneel in front of it with a 
broom and dust-pan as evidences that he recognized the 
august presence, and that he had made every effort to pre- 
pare for his coming. In order to lessen the risk of assas- 
sination, the procession included two sedan-chairs precisely 
alike, and no one except his confidential attendants was 
supposed to know in which one the Emperor rode. These 
royal processions were attended by all the pomp and para- 
phernalia so dear to the Oriental mind, and to the Occi- 
dental, too, for that matter. 

The old Emperor came to the throne on the death of his 
uncle. King Chul-chong, who died without issue, January 
15, 1864. The new sovereign being a boy of twelve, a 
Council of Regency was headed by his father, Ni Kung, 
or, as he was commonly known, the Tai-wen-kun. The 
latter was a man of unusual strength of character for a 
Korean, and he speedily made himself master of the situa- 
tion, and was the virtual ruler till 1873. Koreans still 
shudder as they remember his sanguinary career, as a man 
'^who had bowels of iron and a heart of stone." His 
regency was characterized not only by the usual corrup- 
tion but by ruthless slaughter. He even executed one of 
his own sons. He was fiercely anti-foreign and was re- 
sponsible for the murder of the French CathoHc mission- 
aries and Christians in 1866. When the King attained his 
majority, in 1873, the regency of course ended, but the 
belligerent Tai-wen-kun remained a power in the capital 
and was the source of all sorts of nefarious conspiracies. 
He plotted several times to depose his son. He was at the 
bottom of the attack upon the Japanese legation in 1882. 



THE VANISHED DAYS OF OLD KOREA 29 

When he wanted his enemies at court removed, he adopted 
the pleasant expedient of concealing bombs in boxes of 
bonbons. His enemies once retahated by trying to blow 
him up, but the effort was a failure. If he had been as just 
and humane as he was able and energetic, he would have 
been a power for good. As it was, he was a disturbing ele- 
ment until the feebleness of age deprived him of the ability 
to foment further mischief. 

The youthful King soon proved to be a weak and self- 
indulgent man, who was easily dominated by the minister, 
wife, or concubine who happened to be the favorite at a 
particular time. He was naturally a man of gentle spirit, 
well versed in the history and literature of his country, and 
kindly disposed toward foreigners. Like most weak des- 
pots, he was apt to be cruel when frightened. 

I was favored with an opportunity to see him in 1901, 
and also his son, then the Crown Prince, and afterward the 
Emperor. I owed the opportunity to the American Min- 
ister, the Honorable Horace Allen, whom the King held in 
high regard. Unfortunately, the time fixed was the evening 
of the day on which our steamer was to sail from Chemulpo. 
As I was near the beginning of a journey of over a year 
whose itinerary had been carefully planned, and as im- 
portant engagements in China were involved, I felt that I 
could not disarrange my whole schedule even to meet an 
Emperor. I was therefore indiscreet enough to say to 
Minister Allen that, while I should highly appreciate the 
privilege of entering the august presence of his Majesty, 
to my profound regret it would be impossible as I had 
made all my plans to leave on the forenoon of that day. 
The experienced diplomat replied in some consternation: 
" Look here, you are not in America, but in Asia, and when 
an Asiatic monarch intimates that he will deign to receive 
a certain person at a certain hour, that person is to be re- 
ceived at that precise hour, and a little matter like losing 
a steamer and waiting an indefinite period for another one 
is not to be considered for a moment. An invitation of the 
Emperor is law." There was a hurried consultation, the 



30 'iilE MASTERY OF THE EAR EAST 

result of which was that a friend went to Chemulpo to see 
whether anything could be done with the steamer. This 
friend, in the kindness of his heart and with his knowledge 
that time is not of much account to an Oriental; gave the 
captain such an idea of the importance of my humble self 
and the appalling discourtesy to the Emperor that would 
be involved in leaving his guest in the lurch, that the cap- 
tain actually held his ship until the next day. When he 
saw me at that time he was very pohte and made no com- 
plaint, but I fear that his thoughts were not pleasant. 

And so at the appointed hour we presented ourselves at 
the gate of the royal palace, accompanied by the Reverend 
Doctor and Mrs. H. G. Underwood, and Doctor and Mrs. 
0. R. Avison, missionaries whom the King knew and 
respected. An officer escorted us through files of soldiers 
and a labyrinth of low, rambling buildings, some of native 
constiiiction, others of foreign style, through courtyards 
bare of grass and tramped hard by many feet, until we were 
ushered into a one-story brick structure of European archi- 
tecture, which we were informed was the reception-hall, 
where we were offered tea and cigarettes by the master of 
court ceremonies, and then were escorted to the building 
where the Emperor and the Crown Prince were to receive us. 

Not being accustomed to hobnobbing with royally, I 
had sought advice in advance as to the proper method of 
approach to his Majesty. We were counselled to pause 
on the threshold and make a low bow, advance a step and 
make another low bow, take a further step and make still 
another bow, take a third step and bend low once more, 
and then stand still and see what his Majesty would be 
pleased to do. We carefully followed these instructions, 
and his Majesty was pleased to give the men of our party 
a slight nod, and to shake hands most effusively with our 
wives — w^hich showed that he was a man of sufficient dis- 
cernment to recognize instantly the more worthy members 
of our respective families. 

The audience-chamber was scantily furnished, the only 
articles in it being a carpet and a small table. Ordinary 



THE VANISHED DAYS OF OLD KOREA 31 

paper covered the walls, and there was a total lack of that 
gorgeousness which is supposed to characterize the audience- 
chamber of an Oriental monarch. The Emperor was then 
fifty years of age, rather short; inclined to stoutness, wore a 
thin beard; and had a face which, when lighted by a smile, 
as it was several times during the interview, was not un- 
attractive. The Crown Prince spoke little, and appeared 
to be much inferior to his father in inteUigenceo A life 
spent amid the intrigues and vices of a Korean palace was 
not conducive to the development of strong qualities. 

The Emperor pohtely asked each of us if we were well, 
and after an interview of about half an hour, during which 
he conversed freely and pleasantly, he said that he had 
prepared a little dinner and that he hoped we would re- 
main as his guests, the master of ceremonies representing 
him at the table. (The Emperor never eats with foreigners.) 
He again shook hands with the ladies of the party, and then 
we backed out of the royal presence with the prescribed bows 
until we had passed the door. 

The dinner was served in another plain room, with low 
ceiling and common-looking wall-paper, but the table was 
set with snowy linen, exquisite china, and costly gold and 
silver dishes. Each guest^s plate was marked by a card 
in Chinese characters. The food was perfectly cooked, 
and the thirteen courses were admirably served. We were 
told that the Emperor had a French chef, and we could 
easily believe it. Four Koreans dined with us and were 
very polite and cordial. The one beside whom I sat was 
of princely rank and had \dsited America and Europe. 
He spoke Enghsh fluently, and I found him a most agree- 
able conversationalist. I was interested in noting that 
while five kinds of wine were served, only two persons at 
the table drank it, all the others contenting themselves 
with Tansan, a Japanese mineral water. 

After dinner we were taken to the drawing-rooms of the 
palace where we were entertained by a special programme. 
First appeared dancing hons, each consisting of two men 
under huge lion skins. The heads had been made of dis- 



32 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

proportionate size, with eyes as large as saucers and eyelids 
which were operated by a string worked from the inside. 
When the lions stood before us and bowed, and those great 
saucer-like lids slowly winked, the effect was decidedly 
grotesque. After the lions, forty dancing-girls of the palace 
entered and gave an exhibition of their art to the missionary 
secretaiy and his wife from the far West. Everything, how- 
ever, was decorous. Indeed it would hardly be called a 
dance by Americans, consisting of a series of slow, swaying 
motions more nearly resembling callisthenic exercises, the 
arms gracefully waved, and the steps slow and measured. 
The reputation of dancing-girls in Korea is not good, but 
these were modestly dressed and their conduct was unex- 
ceptionable. Their faces were thickly painted and their 
hair was done up in most elaborate fashion. One of their 
exercises was the throwing of balls through a hole in a 
frame, each girl as she took her turn slowly swaying her 
arms and her body to the sound of the orchestra, and then 
at the climax of the music attempting to throw the ball 
through the hole. If she succeeded, she retired with evi- 
dent pleasure; if she failed, an attendant darted forward 
and painted a black spot upon her cheek, a mark of dis- 
grace. The last of the dances was a sword-dance, and as 
it proceeded the music became more rapid until the dance 
ended in a dizzy whirl. By the time the entertainment 
was concluded it was ten o'clock, and we took our departure, 
having spent four hours in the palace. 

The easy-going King paid little attention to affairs of 
state, and the real government was in the hands of the 
Cabinet ministers and their subordinates. Some of these 
officials were hereditary nobles whose power had grown 
great under the feudal system. Others were men who had 
obtained theii* posts by bribery or special influence. Offices 
were supposed to be obtained, as in China, by competitive 
examinations, but in practice they were virtually sold to 
the highest bidder or given to favorites. Sometimes an 
official resigned a few days after his appointment, as he had 
sought the place only for .he rank which even a brief ten- 



THE VANISHED DAYS OF OLD KOREA 33 

ure enabled him to claim for the rest of his life, or to foist 
some of his poor relations upon the pubHc purse. The 
number of officials and their retainers was almost incredible, 
the average district mandarin having four hundred subor- 
dinates, who did little but collect taxes, loaf, and eat so 
gluttonously and cheat so brazenly that, a British vice- 
consul told Mrs. Bishop, their food alone cost $392,000 a 
year in a single one of the forty-four districts. 

The nobles, or yangbans, as they were called, w^ere ab- 
normally proud of characteristics of which a self-respecting 
American would be ashamed. The physical strength of 
the yangban was usually weak, as his life was one of self- 
indidgence and absence of healthful exercise, but he deemed 
it essential to his dignity to give beholders the impression 
that he was weaker than he really was, so that he would 
not be suspected of ever having done any work. Accord- 
ingly he staggered out of his house and sank into the arms 
of his attendants as if he had taxed his energies to the 
utmost in walking a few steps. The obsequious attendants 
tenderly placed him on the back of the pony, and then held 
each leg in order that the precious body of the dignitary 
might not be subjected to too much strain as he was borne 
through the streets. Canopies or great umbrellas were 
held over his devoted head. Servants ran before him 
knocking the vulgar crowd out of the way, ordering every 
other rider to dismount, and unmercifully belaboring any 
one who was slow about it, or any pedestrian who dared to 
pass in front of the procession. Another attendant osten- 
tatiously carried a cuspidor, while other attendants carried 
pipes, tobacco, cigarettes, and other conveniences to an- 
ticipate his slightest wish. 

The life of the individual Korean was spent imder con- 
stant official espionage. Unless he was a noble, he must 
have a tablet bearing his name and residence so that he 
could be identified at any time. If he was accused of 
crime, and he was so accused on the slightest pretext, he 
was brought before the magistrate who was both judge 
and jury, and usually lazy, corrupt, and cruel. If the cul- 



34 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

prit did not confess that he had committed the alleged 
crime, he was subjected to torture. Every court had an 
appalHng array of paraphernaHa for this purpose — clubs, 
paddles, stocks, chains, ropes, and manacles. The un- 
happy prisoner was sometimes beaten until his back was 
torn to ribbons, or perhaps he was hung up by the arms, 
or was rolled about with his hands fastened to his knees. 
Breaking the shin-bones with clubs was a common mode 
of torture. Prior to 1785 more frightful modes of punish- 
ment were in common use, such as the tearing the body 
apart by oxen; but in that year a new criminal code was 
put in force that abolished some of the worst abuses. Those 
that still prevailed were so great as to shock a white man, 
though he need not go many generations back into the his- 
tory of his own ancestors to find equal cmelties. 

Under such a government the common people suffered 
grievously. They had no rights which their rulers felt 
bound to respect. The taxes would have been heavy enough 
if they had been honestly collected, but dishonesty more 
than doubled them. Corrupt and imscrupulous officials 
extorted as much as possible from the helpless masses. 
Fixed salaries were seldom paid, and adequate ones never, 
so that ^'squeezing" was expected as a matter of course. 
If an official turned the required amount into the imperial 
treasury no questions were asked regarding the additional 
sum which he kept for himself. As this system of graft ran 
down a long fine of officials of vaiying ranks until it reached 
the taxpayer, the plight of that unfortunate individual 
may be imagined. He was lucky if he had enough left for 
his family to eat. An illustration of their methods was given 
in a village in a southern province where telegraph-poles 
were required. "The provincial governor made a requisi- 
tion of 100 cash on every house. The local magistrate in- 
creased it to 200, and his runners to 250, which was actually 
paid by the people; the runners getting 50 cash, the magis- 
trate 100, and the governor 100, a portion of which sum 
was expended on the object for which it was levied." * 

^ Cited by Bishop in Korea and. Her Neighbors, p. 329. 



THE VANISHED DAYS OF OLD KOREA 35 

Any man suspected of having property was liable to be 
thrown into a filthy prison on some ti*nmped-up charge, 
and held and perhaps tortured imtil he disgorged to the 
magistrate. The privilege of collecting taxes was sold to 
the highest bidder or given to dissipated favorites who 
divided the spoil. The courts gave no redress, for the 
plunderer himself was usually both judge and jary. A 
man had no incentive to toil when he knew that the fruits 
of endeavor would be taken from him by lynx-eyed officials. 
So he cultivated only the rice and beans that he required 
for food, and devoted the remainder of his time to smoking 
and resting. 

During our journey through the interior, we stopped 
one night with an intelligent-looldng Korean who lived in 
a modest house, kept one ox, and tilled a few acres of land. 
My missionary companion, knowing him well, said to him: 
''Why do you not build a better house, keep more oxen, 
and cultivate more land ? '^ ''Hush," rephed the frightened 
Korean, "it is not safe even to whisper such things, for if 
they were to come to the ears of the magistrate, I should be 
persecuted until he extorted from me the last yen that I 
possess." Wherever we went we heard substantially the 
same story and saw substantially the same conditions — a 
rapacious and dissolute governing class, and a shabby im- 
provident people who lived from hand to mouth and 
hardly dared call their souls their own. The prevailing 
wretchedness was so great that one wondered how long 
human nature could endure it. Anglo-Saxons would not 
have tolerated it a month. But these stolid Oriental 
grown-up children ate their rice and took their hard lot 
apathetically, while the Emperor borrowed money or sold 
concessions, and the officials stole to keep up appearances. 
Few of the higher classes appeared to discern the coming 
storm, and those who did shrugged their shoulders in the 
spirit of "after us the deluge." 

Against foreign aggressions Korea was utterly helpless. 
The army of about 17,000 men was ostensibly modelled 
after European standards, but no European officer would 



30 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

have been willing to assume responsibility for such an 
army. In 1896 a Russian colonel, assisted by three com- 
missioned officers and ten non-commissioned officers, un- 
dertook to bring some order out of the chaos. He organ- 
ized a royal body-guard of 1,000 men, and armed them with 
Berdan rifles. But he and his officers were displaced in 
April, 1898. The army as a whole was about the worst 
equipped and worst disciplined body imaginable. The sol- 
diers slouched about in most unmilitary fashion. Their 
valor was tested by Mr. J. McLeavy Brown, a British sub- 
ject who was formerly commissioner of maritime customs. 
In addition to the duties of this office he became financial 
adviser to the treasuiy in 1895, and a royal edict issued in 
July, 1896, gave him control of all disbursements. His 
post was a trying one, for the Korean officials with whom 
he dealt were prolific in schemes for robbing the treasury. 
But Mr. Brown was not only incorruptible but fearless, 
and under his honest and skilful management the financial 
condition of the government rapidly improved. The Rus- 
sians and French, finding him an obstacle to their plans, 
succeeded in persuading the Emperor to depose him. But 
Mr. Brown refused to be deposed. A detachment of Korean 
troops was therefore sent to eject him; whereupon the re- 
doubtable Scotch-Irishman, with a vigorous use of a light 
cane and a heavy boot, put the whole detachment to 
ignominious flight in spite of its loaded rifles and fixed 
bayonets. When the army was mustered out by the Japa- 
nese after they had taken control of the government, the 
military establishment consisted of thirty generals, ten 
colonels, and a few nondescript regiments of slouchy and 
unkempt soldiers. 

The navy — ^but it is hardly proper to apply the word 
navy to a variegated assortment of twenty-eight admirals, 
a few sailors, and no war-vessels at all. 

The diplomatic service was, on the whole, better than 
might have been expected in such circumstances; perhaps 
because most of the yangbans were too stupid to know 
anything about other countries, or too lazy to care about 



THE VANISHED DAYS OF OLD KOREA 37 

going to them, so that the posts at foreign capitals went 
to the more ambitious men. They were rather helpless 
figures abroad. The government which they represented 
manifested only languid interest in them, and often left 
them for long periods without salaries or allowances. 
More than once the Korean Minister in Washington was 
unable to pay his grocer, and the correspondence of several 
dignitaries in Europe and America was burdened with 
pathetic appeals for money to meet unpaid bills of long 
standing and thus preserve the government's honor. The 
whole administration was corrupt and impotent. But it 
did not trouble the Koreans. It was the only kind of 
government that they had known for centuries, and they 
accepted it as a matter of course. As for the Emperor, it 
probably never occurred to him that the countr}^ and peo- 
ple existed for any other purpose than to minister to his 
indulgence, and he would have greeted with stupefaction a 
suggestion that he could or should give his subjects a more 
efficient government. He sometimes gave good-natured 
approval when a foreigner proposed an improvement; but 
he was too weak and indolent to care about better things 
either for himself or for his people. 

It is difficult to tell who were the first white men to see 
the shores of the Hermit Nation. Probably the earHest 
arrival was a Portuguese Jesuit priest, Gregorio de Ces- 
pedes, who came as a chaplain of the Japanese Roman 
Catholic Christian, Don Augustin Konishi Yukinaga, who 
commanded the second expedition against Korea by 
Hideyoshi. 

The next white men were some Dutch sailors who be- 
longed to a ship which was making a trading voyage in the 
Far East in 1627. Three sailors, one of whom was named 
Jan Weltervree, landed on the Korean coast to get fresh 
water, and were taken prisoners. They were kindly treated 
but compelled to remain in the country. The two others 
were killed in the Manchu invasion of 1635, but Weltervree 
lived a lonely life till 1653, when he was dehghted by the 
unexpected arrival of a considerable party of his country- 



38 THE MASTP:RY OF THE FAH EAST 

men. They, too, liad come involuntarily. The Dutch 
ship Sparwehr had been wrecked off Quelpai-t Island. Of 
the sixty-four men on board all were drowned except thirty- 
six, who managed to reach land. One of these was a Scotch- 
man named John Bosket, and another was the famous Hen- 
drik Hamel, the supercargo of the vessel. He has left a 
quaint narrative of the experiences of the party. A local 
magistrate received them with some kindness, and October 
29 they were brought to Weltervree in order that he might 
serve as interpreter. With his aid an escape to Japan was 
planned, but the barking of dogs betrayed them, and they 
were soundly bambooed and sent to Seoul under a guard. 
All along the way the people manifested the greatest curi- 
osity to see the strange white men. Arriving at Seoul, 
they were brought before King Hyo-jong, who told them 
that they must remain permanently in Korea. 

The captives had checkered experiences. Sometimes 
they were treated kindly, and sometimes harshly; but they 
were always closely watched. After a time they were sepa- 
rated, and the allowance of rice, which they had at first been 
given, was cut off. Their condition now became pitiable, 
and hunger and disease thinned their numbers. Septem- 
ber 5, 1666, after thirteen years of captivity, the few sur- 
vivors succeeded in escaping in a native sailboat to Japan, 
where they found a ship from Batavia that was about to 
sail on its return voyage. They arrived at Batavia No- 
vember 20, 1667, and July 20 of the following year they 
again set foot on the soil of Holland. HameFs account of 
their adventures was published at Rotterdam in 1668, and 
passed through several editions in Dutch, French, German, 
Spanish, and English. He gives a good account of the vari- 
ous parts of Korea that he saw in his captivity, although his 
spelling of proper names makes it rather difficult to follow 
his narrative. 

Meantime, other sources of information had become 
available. A rude map of the peninsula, sent by the Jesuits 
in Peking, had been pubhshed in France. In 1649 an 
Amsterdam press issued a book entitled China Illustrata, 



THE VANISHED DAYS OF OLD KOREA 39 

written by the Jesuit Father Martini; in which another 
map of Korea figured. In 1707 a Chinese envoy obtained 
a map in Seoul, which the Jesuits carefully reproduced on a 
smaller scale and sent to France to be engraved. Rest- 
less Cossacks, who had pushed their way across Siberia to 
the Pacific, sent reports of Korea back to Russia, and so 
full were these accounts that Sir John Campbell was able 
to compile from them his book. Commercial History of 
Chorea and Japan, which was published in 1771. As time 
passed a few other scraps of information were added to the 
world's tiny stock of knowledge of this far-away land. A 
wandering trading vessel now and then touched at a Korean 
port, and at rare intervals a foreign warship anchored in a 
convenient harbor. Captain W. R. Broughton stopped at 
Ymig-hing Bay, October 4, 1797. Basil's Bay takes its 
name from Captain Basil Hall who entered it in 1816. 
Here the famous missionary, Charles Gutzlaff, landed in 
1832, showed the people how to raise potatoes, and when 
he departed left with them seeds and Christian books. 
June 25, 1845, the British ship Samarang, commanded by 
Captain Edwin Belcher, arrived off Quelpart and spent 
about a month in making a survey of this dangerous coast. 

Koreans, however, continued to jog along their imme- 
morial ways, ignorantly indifferent to the Western world. 
China and Japan they knew from the painful experience of 
war and tribute, but the occasional white men who sporadi- 
cally landed on their shores were transitory visitants from 
a realm of which Koreans knew little and cared less. Korea 
was still the Hermit Nation and the Land of the Morning 
Calm, and of several other kinds of calm. China was 
forced into treaty relations with European nations, and 
Japan was opened to the outside world, but Korea slum- 
bered on as it had slumbered for centuries. 

It was not till the latter half of the nineteenth century 
that the spell was broken. Men of three nations pressed 
for entrance in the year 1866. Russians demanded trading 
concessions. A French war-vessel arrived to inflict punish- 
ment for the murder of some French missionaries who had 



40 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

entered the country in disguise, but the commander foimd 
the task more difficult than he had anticipated, and left 
without doing any serious damage. Americans also came, 
and in circumstances which their countrymen recall with 
disagreeable sensations. The first contact, indeed, was 
pleasant. The American schooner Surprise was wrecked off 
the Korean coast, June 24. Its destitute crew was treated 
with the utmost kindness by the Korean officials, who pro- 
vided for their wants and facilitated their journey to the 
Chinese border, whence they proceeded to New-chwang, 
in Manchuria, where there was an American consul. In 
August of the same year the American schooner General 
Sherman sailed up the Tatong River. It reached a point 
about a mile from the city of Pyengyang, where it went 
aground. Multitudes of Koreans flocked to the shore to 
see the strange vessel, and some went aboard. Trouble 
soon broke out, and in the melee the schooner was burned, 
most of its officers and crew were killed, the rest taken to 
the city and executed, and the cannon and anchor-chains 
were exposed to public view on the city gates. 

The following year, 1867, came the famous, or rather in- 
famous, ^^International Body-Snatching Expedition," un- 
der command of a German named Oppert, guided by a 
French priest, and accompanied by an American inter- 
preter. They had the crazy notion that the tombs of the 
Korean kings were rich repositories of gold and other 
treasure, and that these tombs could not only be easily 
pillaged, but the bodies of the defunct kings held for 
ransom. The buccaneers failed to achieve their nefarious 
purpose, but they succeeded in desecrating some graves, 
fighting a number of Koreans, and causing wholesale exas- 
peration. The American Consul in Shanghai, Mr. George F. 
Seward, arrested and tried the American for participating 
in the expedition; but legal evidence to justify a verdict of 
guilty was lacking, although the Consul had no doubt that 
it would have been richly deserved. 

When, therefore, an American naval squadron went to 
Korea, in 1871, commanded by Admiral John Rodgers, to 
demand satisfaction for the murder of the crew of the Gen- 



THE VANISHED DAYS OF OLD KOREA 41 

eral Sherman, Koreans were not in a mood to regard it as 
friendly. The King declined to recognize the squadron, 
sending back word that if the sailors were hungry they 
would be given food on condition that they would immedi- 
ately depart; but that if they had come to change the cus- 
toms of the people they would find it difficult to overthrow 
the prejudices of four thousand years; that a people calling 
themselves French had once undertaken this, and the 
Americans were respectfully referred to them for the de- 
tails of what happened then. Thereupon the admiral or- 
dered an attack upon the fort at the mouth of the river, 
which was quickly demolished, although not without sharp 
fighting. This was June 10, and two weeks later the 
squadron sailed away. 

Admiral Winfield Scott Schley, who participated as a 
young officer in this expedition, gives a graphic account of 
it in his Own Story, pubHshed in 1912. He declared that 
"the General Sherman had been wantonly destroyed for no 
other reason than that she had visited the Korean waters,^' 
and that "the action taken by Korea against the General 
Sherman was so unprovoked and so unjustified that no 
nation could maintain its influence, or even its self-respect, 
unless it demanded an apology and indemnity, especially 
at a time when the hostile feeling of a large class in China 
was being outwardly manifested toward all foreigners.^' 
Whether this version of the case is correct or not, it is gratify- 
ing to know that the American naval officers felt so con- 
fident that their course was justified, and that "Admiral 
Rodgers exhausted every peaceful means to negotiate with 
the Koreans in order to ascertain whether they could jus- 
tify their destruction of the General Sherman and the mur- 
der of her crew." At any rate, the punishment was swift 
and dire. After killing many of the Koreans, routing the 
remainder, disabling their cannon, and blowing up their 
magazines, "we returned to our ships," continues the nar- 
rative, "the duty of our expedition having been fulfilled to 
the letter and the insult to the flag avenged." 

Koreans give a different account of the circumstances 
which brought about the massacre of the crew of the Gen- 



42 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

eral Sherman. It is difficult to separate the truth from the 
error in the confused jumble of reportS; rumors, charges, 
and countercharges. Not an American Hved to tell the 
tale, and Koreans are not famous for teUing the unvarnished 
tmth, especially when they are defending themselves from 
a charge of murder; neither are Americans. At any rate, 
candor compels record of the fact that the Koreans assert 
that the provocation was committed by the foreign sailors. 
Doctor S. Wells Williams, then secretary of the American 
legation in Peking, carefully inquired into the matter, and 
came to the conclusion that "the evidence goes to uphold 
the presumption that they (the crew) invoked their sad 
fate by some rash or violent act toward the natives." 

It should be borne in mind, too, that the Koreans at that 
time were apprehensive of an attack by the French; that 
they had seen very few white men and could not easily 
distinguish between Frenchmen and Americans; that the 
schooner was heavily armed; and that the natives, remem- 
bering the stories that were in circulation regarding the 
cruelty of foreigners would naturally suspect sinister mo- 
tives in such visitors. The Reverend Doctor William M. 
Baird, an American Presbyterian missionary in Pyengyang, 
says that he talked with many people who saw the General 
Sherman come up the river and some who were aboard 
the steamer at a point some distance from Pyengj^ang, 
and that one of them, who at the time of the interview had 
become a Christian and whom Doctor Baird regarded as 
trustworthy, told him that the schooner had violated the 
law in entering the river without permission, and that a 
magistrate, who had gone on board, was detained and not 
allowed to return to the shore. 

Admiral Rodgers said that his purpose was peaceful, and 
that he only desired justice; but the Koreans did not under- 
stand why a peaceful mission should come in ships of war. 
The}^ were not accustomed to seeing kindly disposed vis- 
itors approaching them armed to the teeth. They had 
learned that foreign ships had usually meant fighting, and 
they acted accordingly. 



THE VANISHED DAYS OF OLD KOKEA 43 

Wherever the truth may lie, Americans should be fair 
enough to see that, reprehensible as the course of the 
Koreans may have been from our view-point, the occasions 
for misunderstanding undoubtedly existed, and that in 
the whole series of events Americans were far from blame- 
less. As for the Koreans, they were more thoroughly con- 
vinced than ever that foreigners were barbarians and that 
the less that was seen of them the better. 

But the time had come when the isolation of the past 
could no longer be maintained. The new world movement 
had reached the Far East. Japan and China had already 
been forced out of their immemorial seclusion, and it was 
impossible for the intervening Korean peninsula to stand 
apart from a force which had overcome the conservatism 
of stronger nations. A few of the more intelligent Koreans 
saw this; but the dull and stubborn conservatism of cen- 
turies was not to be overcome in a day. The party of re- 
action, led by the able and fanatical Tai-wen-kun, fiercely 
opposed the men of progressive spirit. However, other 
nations pressed for treaty relations, and the year 1882 saw 
their consummation. The first to be signed was with the 
United States. Several American ships had been wrecked 
off the Korean coast, and the sailors who had managed to 
reach the shore had been tied hand and foot, slung on poles 
like pigs for the market, borne to some interior city, and 
there put to death. The government at Washington had 
made several vain attempts to secure relations which would 
prevent the recurrence of such outrages, and finally, in 
1882, Commodore R. W. Schufeldt of the American navy 
succeeded in effecting a treaty, which w^as drafted by the 
Honorable Chester Holcombe, then acting American Min- 
ister in Peking. Treaties with other nations soon fol- 
lowed — with Germany in 1883, Russia and Italy in 1884, 
France in 1886, and Austria-Hungary in 1892; the Korean 
Government signing one after the other with varying de- 
grees of reluctance. And so Korea ceased to be the "Her- 
mit Nation." 



CHAPTER III 
THE KOREAN PEOPLE 

The census of 1902 gave the population of the country 
as 5,782,806, a preposterously unreHable figure. The old 
Korean Government required each magistrate to state how 
many people were under his jurisdiction, and it assessed 
taxes on the basis of his report. In order to make the taxes 
as low as possible, the magistrates lied egregiously, having 
no American ambition to make their cities appear as large 
as possible. The latest Japanese census places the popu- 
lation at 17,406,645, of whom 18,972 were Chinese, 597 
Americans, 223 British, 107 French, 57 Germans, and 
303,659 Japanese. All of the difference of a dozen millions 
between the Korean and Japanese counts should not be 
charged to the mendacity of the native officials, for the 
population has really increased rapidly during recent years. 
The Japanese census of 1910 reported 12,934,282 people, 
so that reliable data indicate mounting numbers. The 
influx of Japanese is about offset by the exodus of Koreans 
to Manchuria, so that the native bii-th-rate is apparently 
rising and the death-rate falling under the better physical 
conditions of Japanese rule. 

Sharply diverse views have been expressed regarding the 
character of the Koreans. No other people in Asia have 
been so contemptuously characterized. Captain Bostwick, 
of the United States warship Polos, which lay some months 
in the harbor of Chemulpo many years ago, expressed in a 
poetic effusion his disgust of the 

"... singular country far over the seas, 
Which is known to the world as Korea, 
Where there's nothing to charm and nothing to please, 
And of cleanliness not an idea.'' 

Some later travellers have not been more favorably im- 
pressed. Mr. Whigham, in his Manchuria and Korea, de- 

44 



THE KOREAN PEOPLE 45 

clares that "the Korean resembles the pale ghost of what 
a Chinaman was a thousand years ago. . . . The China- 
man has so many good points that it is possible even to 
defend his civilization against our own. The Korean has 
^absolutely nothing to recommend him save his good nature.'^ 
'^' Lord Curzon expressed an equally unfavorable opinion in his 
volume on Problems of the Far East: "The spectacle of a 
country boasting a separate, if not an independent national 
existence for centuries, and yet devoid of all external symp- 
toms of strength; inhabited by a people of physical vigor 
but moral inertness; well endowed with resources, yet crip- 
pled for want of funds — such a spectacle is one to which I 
know no counterpart even in Asia, the continent of con- 
trasts.'' Archibald Little, in The Far East, says that "all 
ambition or desire for progress seems to have died out 
from among them," and that "a naturally capable race, 
holding an exaggerated reverence for their Chinese teach- 
ers, has lapsed into a condition of self-satisfaction and con- 
sequently arrested progress without, at the same time, hav- 
ing acquired Chinese devotion to w^ork." 

George Kennan is even more pessimistic, declaring in an 
article in The Outlook that " they are not only unattractive 
and unsympathetic to a Westerner who feels no spiritual 
interest in them, but they appear more and more to be 
lazy, dirty, unscrupulous, dishonest, incredibly ignorant, 
and wholly lacking in the seK-respect that comes from a 
consciousness of individual power and worth. They are 
not undeveloped savages; they are the rotten product of 
a decayed Oriental civilization." Professor George T. 
Ladd, after his visit to Korea in 1907, wrote: "The Koreans 
are the most untmstworthy and lacking in manly virtues 
of any people I have ever come in contact with. The most 
that their devoted admirers can say of them is that they 
are of an amiable nature. But nothing is more beastly 
and insane in its cruelty than a Korean mob. . . . The 
native character is rather more despicable than that of any 
other people whom I have come to know." 

One is reminded of Mr. Russell's story in Collections and 



46 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Rccolledions, that when Selina; Countess of Huntingdon, 
asked the Duchcvss of Buckingham to accompany her to a 
sermon by Whitefield, the Duchess repHed that the doctrmes 
of the Methodist preachers were most repulsive and strongly 
tinged with impertinence and disrespect toward their su- 
penors. "It is monstrous to be told," she wrote, "that you 
have a heart as simple as the common wretches that crawl 
on the earth; and I cannot but wonder that your Ladyship 
should relish any sentiments so much at variance with 
high rank and good breeding." / 

It must be admitted that some of the Korean traits 
which impress the supei-ficial obsei-ver are far from agree- 
able. The people appear, at first glance, to be the least 
attractive of the peoples of Asia. They lack the energy 
and ambition of the Japanese, the thrift, industry, and 
strength of the Chinese. The visitor usually comes from 
Japan, and the contrast is painful. The villages are squalid 
collections of mushroom hovels. The streets are crooked 
alleys, and their lounging denizens are apparently most 
unpromising material. Indolence is a national character- 
istic. The Korean is content to take life as easily as pos- 
sible. He is never so happy as when he is supported by 
some wealthier relation or has some government office 
which relieves him from the necessity of labor. Public 
sentiment does not regard dependence as in any way un- 
manly, and every Korean of substance or position is sur- 
rounded by a swarm of parasites. 

Filthy is not a pleasant w^ord, but one must use it in re- 
vVf erring to the personal habits of the Koreans. The higher 
classes and the mission converts are notably clean, but the 
common people are unspeakably dirty. They know noth- 
ing of sanitation and care less. When free to do as they 
please, they throw garbage and offal on the ground, and 
leave it to breed every kind of zymotic abomination. They 
cast all slops into an open trench beside their huts. The 
trench ends a few yards from the house, and the filth seeps 
into the soil, often near the wells from which the drinking- 
water is drawn. Open ditches along the sides of the streets 



THE KOREAN PEOPLE 47 

become choked mth refuse and form pools of filth, in which 
mangy, quarrelling dogs prowl for refuse, and the scavenger 
hog wallows in a way that enables one to understand wh}^ 
the Mosaic law forbade the eating of pork. In the hot, 
wet months of July and August, a Korean city becomes a 
steaming cesspool of malodorous slime. 

The Korean does not have a nice taste regarding his 
food, and the foreigner will do well to avoid meat unless he 
has personally seen the animal killed. Koreans, like Chi- 
nese, seldom feel that they can afford to kill a useful cow 
or bullock, and the meat that is exposed for sale is ordi- 
narily that of some animal which has died of disease or old 
age. One is reminded of the old woman who was fryuig 
pork when a neighbor dropped in for a chat. ^^ Grand 
bacon, that,'^ said the friend, sniffing affably. "Grand 
bacon? Well, I guess it is grand bacon," said the old lady, 
turning the slices in the pan. "An' it's none o' yer mur- 
dered stuff, nuther; that pig died a natural death." After 
a residence of fifteen years in Korea Mrs. H. G. Underwood 
wrote: "Every imiaginable practice which comes under the 
definition of unhygienic or unsanitary is common. Even 
young children in arms eat raw and green cucumbers, un- 
peeled, acrid berries, and hea^y, soggy, hot bread. They 
bolt quantities of hot or cold rice, with a tough, indigestible 
cabbage washed in ditch-water, prepared with turnips and 
flavored with salt and red pepper. Green fruit of every 
kind is eaten with perfect recklessness of all the laws of 
nature, and with an impunity which makes a Westerner 
stand aghast. But even these, so to speak, galvanized-iron 
interiors are not always proof. Every five or six years a 
bacillus develops itself, so hardened, so well-armed, so 
deeply toxic, that even Koreans must succumb, and then 
there is an epidemic of cholera."^ The Japanese have 
energetically grappled with the problem of sanitation and 
have made marked improvements, particularly in the capi- 
tal; but it will be a long time before the peasant Korean 
will be decently clean except under compulsion. 

* Fifteen Years Among the Top-Knots, pp. 133-134. 



48 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

But there is another side to this picture. While it must 
be conceded that the Koreans lack the energy and ambi- 
tion of the Japanese, and the industry and persistence of 
the Chinese, one should remember that for centuries their 
[/ position has been unfavorable to the development of 
■^ strength of character. A comparatively small nation, 
hemmed in between warlike Japan on one side and mighty 
China on the other, the Land of the Morning Calm was 
doomed from the outset to be a tributary state, and its 
people long ago helplessly acquiesced in the inevitable. 
They had becoriie so accustomed to being pulled and 
hauled b}^ contending masters and to being impoverished 
and maltreated by their own magistrates that they came 
to accept subjugation and poverty as the natural concomi- 
tants of life. With no prospect of independence as a nation, 
their ruling classes gave themselves up to self-indulgence 
and dissipation. It is not surprising, therefore, that the 
superior power of neighboring nations taught the Koreans 
dependence; that the exactions of tax-gatherers fostered 
deceit; that the certainty that the results of toil could not 
be enjoyed begat indolence; and that the denial of rights 
that any one was bound to recognize generated despair. 

The poverty of the people was bitter, and the introduc- 
tion of foreign goods made it worse for a time. Koreans 
formerly grew their own cotton and wove on hand-looms 
the cloth for the ubiquitous white flowing garment of the 
common people, while the silk worn by the better classes 
was also produced at home. Then English cotton and 
Japanese silk were poured into the country, and the indolent 
people found it easier to buy them than to make their own. 
In like manner they bought foreign lamps, pipes, tobacco, 
and many of the utensils which they once made for them- 
selves. They had little to export to balance these imports. 
Some rice and beans went to Japan, but not enough to be 
an important factor in the economic situation. Concessions 
for the mines and forests were granted by the old Emperor 
to foreign companies, and the price of the concession was 
squandered by corrupt officials, so that the people derived 



THE KOREAN PEOPLE 49 

no benefit. Thus Korea was drained of her money. It 
was all outgo and no income. 

Debt not infrequently ended in slaveiy, as the debtor 
could find no way to meet his obligation except to sell him- 
self to his creditor. Apart from such cases, slaveiy could 
hardly be said to exist. It is true that children were occa- 
sionally sold by their parents in time of famine, that the 
family of a decapitated criminal might become the slaves 
of the judge, and that a few were born in slavery. But the 
number of slaves was small. Serfdom, however, existed for 
centuries. It was at its height during the old feudal days; 
and until recently serfs were still to be found on the estates 
of the great nobles. The condition of multitudes of the 
common people, however, was so abject that their lot could 
hardly be worse if they had been serfs. 

The general poverty appears in the architectm^e. It fol- 
lows Chinese lines in the more pretentious buildings, like 
the royal palaces and the yamens of the governors and magis- 
trates. But, however wonderful they may be in the eyes 
of a Korean, to a foreigner they are humble enough. A 
comitiy merchant in America lives in a better house than 
the Emperor of Korea occupied, and thousands of stables 
in the United States are more attractive than the official 
residence of a pro\dncial governor. The buildings are not 
only plain, but usually dilapidated. It seldom occin*s to a 
Korean to make repairs, and even in palaces and temples 
one sees crumbling walls and dirty courtyards. 

The houses are of one story. The typical house of the 
common people is a rude but strong framework of crooked 
poles, woven together with millet-stalks or brush, fastened 
with straw ropes, and plastered with mud. The roofs in 
cities are covered with ponderous tiles, but in the villages 
they are thatched with rice straw. The interiors are gloomy 
and unwholesome, the windows, if there are any, being small 
and covered with a tough oiled paper, which admits a dim 
Hght but no air. The doors are so low that the American 
bumps his head at every entrance unless he keeps his wits 
about him. The floor is usually of flat stones covered with 



50 Tlir: MASTERY OV THE FAR EAST 

a rough cement, on which he a few mats which are often 
ahve with vermin. The fire is built outside of the house 
and the flues iim under the earthen floor. In this way the 
fire for cooking also serves to heat the room. As it is 
usually kept going in the summer to cook the rice and beans 
for the family food, the interior becomes like an oven. 
An inn is simply a larger house, and as there are no beds 
in Korea, the unhappy traveller who has not brought a 
cot with him must sleep, as the natives do, upon, the floor. 
Half-boiled by the heat, assailed by the swarming vermin, 
and disturbed by barking dogs and squealing ponies in the 
adjoining courtyard, he is apt to feel in troubled dreams that 
he is lying on a hot stove amid jeering, biting demons. 
However, this arrangement serves the important purpose 
of keeping Korean houses free from dampness. The poorer 
ones have only two rooms, but the houses of the middle 
classes contain from three to six, while all gentlemen who 
are able to afford it have in addition a sarang, a kind of 
reception-room, which is used by the men, and where guests 
are entertained. The part of the house which is occupied 
by the women is called the anpang, and no men, except 
members of the family, are ever admitted. There are, of 
course, some houses that are roomier, but as a rule the 
well-to-do Korean does not build a higher house, but sim- 
ply adds other rooms and courtyards, and perhaps puts on 
a tile roof. Rich or poor, he shuts his house from public 
view, by a wall if he can afford one, otherwise by a screen 
of bamboo or millet stalks. 

Hunger does not go hand in hand with poverty as it 
does in China and India. The food is coarse, but such as 
it is there is enough, save in exceptional times and places. 
The Korean coolie is a voracious eater, consuming great 
quantities of rice and beans, and more meat than either the 
Chinese or the Japanese. Like the latter, he is fond of 
raw fish, intestines and all, and he does not disdain dogs, 
which are freely eaten by the common people. Every 
traveller bears witness to the disposition of the Koreans to 
gorge themselves. I marvelled at the enormous dishes of 



THE KOREAN PEOPLE 51 

rice and beans and vegetables that my chair-carriers ate 
at our noon-day stops. When fruit, radishes, or cucumbers 
were to be had, one Korean would devour as many as sev- 
eral foreigners. Even babies, at an age when an American 
mother would allow her child to have nothing but milk, 
are crammed with rice, and after a child will not eat any 
more, the mother stuffs additional rice into its mouth until 
it is impossible to cram in any more. 

The major vices, while common, are not so conspicuous 
as in many other countries. Gambling exists, but is not 
a distinctive vice as in Siam and China. There is a good 
deal of immorality, particularly among the yangbans, who 
usually keep as many concubines and dancing-girls as they 
can afford. But before the Japanese occupation, outward 
signs of impurity were not nearly so much in evidence as 
in other Asiatic countries. Saloons are not numerous, save 
in the capital and the treaty ports, where they are largely 
patronized by foreigners. I saw very few intoxicated 
Koreans anj^where. But it would be misleading to infer 
temperance from the comparative absence of drunken men 
in public places, for the Korean drinks in his own home, 
especially at night, where, if he gets drunk, other people 
are not apt to see him. He makes various kinds of Hquors, 
both fermented and distilled, from his native grains, and 
he often drinks to excess. Rice-whiskey is consimied in 
large quantities and is an inseparable concomitant of feasts 
and social gatherings of all kinds. It is not pleasant to 
know that contact with the outside world is aggravating 
the vice of intemperance in Korea. Koreans are learning 
to like foreign liquors better than their own raw spirits. 
Increasing quantities of gin and whiskey are being im- 
ported from Europe, and Japanese sake and beer are pour- 
ing in floods into the country. 

There is a good deal more to the Koreans than the cur- 

c;||ory visitor reahzes. Physically, the average Korean is a 

robust man. He is not as tall as the European or the 

Chinese of the northern provinces, but he is larger than the 

Japanese. I was impressed by the strength and endurance 



52 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

of the Korean porters. They were equipped with a wooden 
framework called a ^^jickie." It roughly resembles a chair 
upside down, and is held on the back by straps or ropes 
which pass over the shoulders and under the arms. A 
porter stooped while over two hundred pounds of luggage 
was piled into his jickie, when he rose with comparatively 
little effort and jogged along from the station in Seoul to 
the house, more than a mile away, at which we were to be 
entertained. I walked briskly myself and had nothing to 
carry, but the trunks were at the house within five minutes 
after our arrival, the charge being fifteen sen each (about 
seven and a half cents). These men live on a diet of rice 
and beans, with a few other vegetables and an occasional 
fish. But the muscles of their legs and arms are mighty 
bulging knots as hard as whip-cords. 

A significant fact is that with the adoption of foreign 
dress it is very difficult to tell Koreans and Japanese apart^ 
except by the language. The former dissimilarity in appear- 
ance now proves to have been in the topknot, the horse- 
hair hat, and the flowing white garment. Many Koreans in 
the rural districts still adhere to their traditional garb, but 
increasing numbers in the cities are cutting their hair Japa- 
nese fashion and wearing the same style of clothing as their 
conquerors. To test the matter, I repeatedly asked old resi- 
dents in Seoul to tell me whether men whom we met on 
the streets were Koreans or Japanese, and they could sel- 
dom do so without inquiring. 

The Korean's personal courage is good, as he repeatedly 
showed in his former wars with the Japanese, though his 
lack of organization and competent leadership and his 
ignorance of the weapons and methods of modern warfare 
make him helpless before the Japanese to-day. 

Nor are Koreans lacking mentally. Their political help- 
lessness and their lack of initiative and ambition have 
given the world a wrong impression as to their real abihty. 
They learn readily under favorable conditions and develop 
rapidly. Every delegate conceded that the best speech at 
the International Student Conference of 1907 in Tokyo 



THE KOREAN PEOPLE 53 

was made by a Korean. He delivered it with splendid 
power in excellent English, and then, to the admiration of 
his audience, he delivered it again in Japanese. Korean 
children are remarkably bright scholars, as all missionary 
teachers testify. My long tour of Asia enabled me to 
compare the average village Korean with the average vil- 
lage types of the Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos, Siamese, 
East Indians, and Syrians, and while the Koreans were more 
dirty and wretched than the other peoples, they impressed 
me as quite as capable of development as the typical Asiatic 
elsewhere, if conditions were equally favorable. Archibald 
Little, who saw many of the countries of Asia, not only 
wrote of the superior physique of the Koreans, but he de- 
clared that "in intelligence, where the opportunity of its 
development is afforded, they are not inferior to other races 
of Mongol type."^ 

Their ancient history is one of honorable achievement. 
Slothful and unambitious as they now appear to be, they 
formerly showed considerable inventive genius and the 
ability to produce many articles of utility and ornament. 
I have referred elsewhere to the testimony of Koradadbeh, 
the Arab geographer of the ninth century, that in his time 
the Koreans made nails, rode on saddles, wore satin, and 
manufactured porcelain. Japanese records show that the 
Japanese themselves first learned from Koreans the culti- 
vation of the silkworm, the weaving of cloth, the principles 
of architecture, the printing of books, the painting of pic- 
tures, the beautifjdng of gardens, the making of leather 
harness, and the shaping of more effective weapons. Ko- 
reans learned some of these arts from the Chinese; but 
even so they showed their readiness to learn, while they 
themselves were the first makers of a number of important 
articles. Whereas the Chinese invented the art of printing 
from movable wooden blocks, the Koreans invented metal 
type in 1403. They used a phonetic alphabet in the early 
part of the fifteenth century. They saw the significa.nce 
of the mariner's compass in 1525. They devised, in 1550, 

^ The Far East, p. 247. 



54 THE MASTERY OF TPIE EAR ]£AST 

an astronomical instmment which they veiy properly called 
"a heavenly measurer." Money was used as a medium of 
exchange in Korea long before it was employed in northern 
Europe. They used cannon and explosive shells in attack- 
ing the invading Japanese in 1592. The first iron-clad 
warship in the world was invented by a Korean, Admiral 
Yi Sun-siu, in the sixteenth century. He called it The 
Tortoise Boat, and he commanded it with such effectiveness 
against the Japanese that it was largely instrumental in 
defeating the fleet of Hideyoshi. Korean paper has long 
been prized in the Far East. It is made from various ma- 
terials — ragS; hemp; cotton, rice-stalks, and the inner bark 
of the mulberry-tree. When soaked in oil of sesame, it 
becomes strong, tough, and water-proof. It is made of any 
desired thickness and can be washed without injury. It 
is used for a variety of purposes — ^laid upon the floor, hung 
upon walls and ceilings, and pasted over the latticed win- 
dows in place of glass. Dozens of articles are made of it — 
kites, lanterns, fans, umbrellas, hats, shoes, clothes-chests, 
tobacco-pouches, toys, rain-coats, water-proof covering for 
provisions, etc. 

The Koreans of to-day have not improved upon the in- 
ventions of their ancestors, and appear to have deteriorated 
rather than advanced; but this deterioration has been 
largely due to conditions which can be remedied, and as 
a matter of fact are now being remedied. A people that 
showed such intelligence once can probably, under more 
favorable conditions, show equal alertness again. 

While the Japanese proved themselves to be the stronger 
in war, they were deeply influenced by the Koreans in re- 
ligion and the arts of peace. Korea gave Buddhism to 
Japan in 552 A. D. Some years ago a Japanese editor 
called the attention of his readers to two cases of beautiful 
early Korean pottery which had just been placed on ex- 
hibition in the Japanese department of the Museimi of 
Fine Arts in Boston, and whose equal, he declared, had 
probably never been seen in America before. A few pieces 
of this kind had been shown before in the Morse, Macom- 



THE KOREAN PEOPLE 53 

ber, and Ross collections of the museum, but nothing so 
complete or so representative as these choice examples had 
been on view. This pottery is highly valued by Japanese 
collectors, who eagerl}^ buy the few specimens that can now 
be found by diligent searching.^ The Koreans of to-day are 
adepts in making pottery which, though far less beautiful 
than that now made in Japan and China, is well adapted 
to household uses. Jars of immense size are made for stor- 
ing water and grain, and smaller ones are used for scores of 
practical purposes, and for ornamental objects. 

Many people praise the Japanese for their exquisite 
Satsuma ware without knowing that the Koreans long ago 
taught the Japanese the art of its manufacture. After a 
seventh-centuiy war between China and Japan, fought as 
usual in Korea and in which the Chinese were victorious, 
2,400 Koreans preferred to follow the defeated Japanese to 
Japan rather than remain in Korea as subjects of China. 
They settled permanently in Japan, estabhshed potteries 
and taught pottery-making to the Japanese. This was the 
beginning of that industry in Japan for which the Japanese 
are now so famous. Other colonies of Korean emigrants 
followed from time to time until tens of thousands had 
come, bringing with them a civilization considerably higher 
than Japan then had, intermarrying with the islanders and 
introducing important elements into Japanese life. 

In spite of the apathetic conservatism of Korea, the 
people have welcomed foreign foods with avidity. It is 
not surprising that tobacco, wliich was introduced by the 
Japanese in 1614 or 1615, soon became a universal habit, 
not only all the men but most of the women and children 
using the weed. But the people were not slow to recognize 
the value of more useful things. Cotton cloth was appre- 
ciated centuries ago. The rich had worn silks and furs, 
and the poorer classes a coarse cloth rudely woven from 
hemp, sea-grass, or plaited straw. For a long time the 
Koreans were unable to secure the seeds of the cotton-plant. 
There is a tradition that the Chinese had jealously guarded 

^ The Oriental Review, Dec, 1911. 



56 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

them in order that they might control the trade, but that 
a member of one of the Korean tribute embassies had man- 
aged to smuggle a few seeds out of the country hidden in 
the quill of a feather in his hat. Cultivation of cotton did 
not become common until the Japanese had made the use 
of the cloth famihar at the time of their invasions in the 
latter part of the sixteenth century. Then the growing of 
cotton and the manufacture of cloth rapidly increased. 
Kerosene-oil was also instantly appreciated, and large quan- 
tities are now imported. This illuminant has made a great 
change in Korean life, since it has made possible ways of 
spending the evening that were out of the question when 
the only illuminant was smoky fish-oil. With kerosene-oil 
has come the Japanese match, which can now be found in 
the remotest hamlets. 

./The Korean has shown that when he is fairly paid and 
well treated he can work faithfully and intelligently. This 
is the testimony of men who have had fair opportimity to 
judge. A missionary wrote to several American gentlemen 
who were superintending large enterprises in the country, 
and asked them to state their experience with the Koreans 
in their employ. The replies, which are in my possession, 
are unanimously and emphatically in accord with the 
opinion of Mr. Thomas W. Van Ess, auditor of the 0. C. 
Mining Company, who wrote: ^^I have had Koreans work- 
ing under me for thirteen years. I have always found them 
diligent, good workers and very quick to learn, and in 
my opinion, taking them as a whole, much easier to teach 
than the other Oriental races with which I have also had 
many years' experience. The company employs on the 
concession about 5,000 Koreans, and the heads of the 
different departments can all produce dozens of natives 
who are now experts at their various duties, which include 
work as miners, timbermen, hoist and stationaiy engineers, 
machinists, blacksmiths, carpenters, electricians, assayers, 
millmen, hospital assistants, etc. All that is necessary to 
bring out the splendid capabilities of the Korean is a prac- 
tical education." 



THE KOREAN PEOPLE 57 

One of the mining superintendents wrote that in an acci- 
dent which filled a shaft with gaS; the foreman, a Norwegian, 
became unconscious on the third level, and that, after many 
of the Americans were overcome in the effort to save him, 
the Korean miners begged the others not to go in but to 
leave the rescue to them and they would get him out; and 
get him out they did, but too late to save his Hfe. "These 
Korean miners risked their lives to save Noren, who lost 
his life trying to save their people. It was a splendid ex- 
hibition of manhood by three nationalities — American, 
Norwegian, and Korean — and the Korean held his own 
with the others." 

It is significant that many of the Koreans who have 
emigrated to Manchuria have quickly become industrious 
and capable men. This emigration began many years ago, 
but for a long period it was confined to comparatively few 
people near the border, some of whom had special reasons 
for getting out of Korea. More substantial emigration 
began during the famine of 1863, which led larger numbers 
of hungry Koreans to seek the more fertile lands of Man- 
churia. The rule of the Russians, prior to their expulsion 
from Manchuria, was far from ideal, but there was a better 
enforcement of law than in Korea, and a greater security 
of life and property. Under these improved conditions 
these famine refugees became comparatively thrifty and 
prosperous. Since the Japanese occupation this emigra- 
tion has become considerable, until there are now said to 
be more than 300,000 Koreans in Manchuria. Many of 
them have become well-to-do farmers and small tradesmen 
and have shown energy and self-reliance in adapting them- 
selves to the new conditions. Mr. J. Bryner, the Dutch 
Consul at Vladivostok, declared some years ago that 
Vladivostok "owed much to the industry of the Chinese 
and Koreans/' and that "many of them are now quite 
wealthy and have had a university education, while the 
ladies may be observed in ballrooms or in any public assem- 
blage exquisitely attired in the latest Paris fashions, and 
wearing them as to the manner born."^ I suspect that the 

* Quoted in the Seoul PresSf February 11, 1912. 



58 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Paris gowns were on the Chinese women, but the fact that 
Mr. Bryner included the Korean in his tribute to the in- 
dustry and prosperity of the city's Asiatic population in- 
dicates that he deemed them also worthy of respect. 

Courtesy of manner and kindliness of disposition are at- 
tractive qualities which many Koreans possess to a high 
degree. It is true that punishments were brutal and that 
indifference to suffering was callous; but this is true of 
Asiatics generally. Indeed a sensitive regard for the pains 
of others is a recent development in the white man. Stocks, 
whipping-posts, foul dungeons, debtors' prisons, and tor- 
turing to extort confession survived in England and America 
till well into the last century, and the notorious '^ third 
degree," to which suspected men are still subjected by the 
police of New York, Chicago, and other cities, causes a 
mental torture which is almost as bad as the rack and 
thumb-screw of the Middle Ages. Koreans are far more 
considerate and helpful to one another than Chinese. The 
unfortunate man in China is often left to bear his adversity 
alone. " Men are cheap, a few more or less are of no con- 
sequence," a Chinese indifferently repHed to an indignant 
protest against leaving the occupants of a capsized boat to 
drown. But the Korean is sympathetic, promptly goes 
to the rescue of an imperilled man, helps a neighbor whose 
home has been burned, and, however poor he may be him- 
self, freely offers hospitality even to passing strangers. 

There is none of the prejudice against white men which 
was long so marked in China and Japan. It is true that 
only a generation ago (1866) there was a furious anti- 
foreign outbreak in which 9 French priests and about 
20,000 Roman Catholic Christians are said to have been 
killed; but overt dislike of foreigners is now confined to a 
few officials and old Confucian scholars. There was a 
temporary commotion when it was discovered that on 
November 20, 1900, a secret edict had been issued ordering 
an uprising against foreigners on the 6th of December. 
Even in the most peaceable of civilized lands there are law- 
less characters who are always ready for violence. Ameri- 



THE KOREAN PEOPLE 59 

cans who recall the readiness with which a mob forms in 
their own cities will understand how easily trouble might 
have followed such an edict in Korea. But the alert Ameri- 
can Minister, the Honorable Horace N. Allen, took such 
prompt and decisive measiu-es that the plot was a fiasco. 
For a time the situation was strained, especially in the south, 
where Japan was suspected of inciting sedition as an excuse 
for landing more troops to protect her interests, especially 
the telegraph-line and the projected railway to Seoul. But 
the alarm quickly subsided. Mr. W. H. Griffin, a mining 
engineer, who was badly beaten and robbed of one thousand 
dollars and most of his personal effects by nine Koreans 
in March, 1909, may be pardoned for doubting the peace- 
ableness of Koreans; but robbers are not peculiar to Korea, 
and a man who is known to be carrying such a sum would 
not be safe in many parts of Europe and America. The 
normal experience of a foreign traveller is one of marked 
kindliness and consideration. The best that the people 
have is promptly and gladly placed at his disposal. A mis- 
sionary writes that when foreign ladies arrive at night at 
an inn, the guests who are occupjdng the one small private 
room will invariably vacate and go to the common room, 
crowded with fifteen or twenty bad-smelling horsemen and 
coolies. They almost always do this for a foreign man, 
and they accept his proffered apologies with the reply: 
"Are you not the American guest?'' 

We had some opportunity to test this disposition of the 
people, for in our journey through the interior we passed 
through scores of villages far from the beaten track of travel, 
ate in native huts and slept in native inns, with our luggage 
and supplies piled in the open courtyards. The people 
manifested great curiosity, following us in crowds through 
the streets, forming a solid wall of humanity about us at 
every stop, and peering at us through every door, window, 
and crevice. But not once was the slightest insolence 
shown, and not a penny's worth was stolen. Everywhere 
we were treated respectfully and with a kindly hospitality 
which quite won our hearts. The best that a village af- 



60 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

forded was gladly placed at our disposal, and while prices 
were never excessive, in several places the people refused 
to receive any compensation. We usually sent word ahead, 
so that accommodations might be ready for us, and when- 
ever we did so, groups of people would walk out several 
miles to meet us, sometimes in a heavy rain. The invariable 
salutation was a smiling inquiry: "Have you come in 
peace?'' And when we left, the people would escort us 
some distance on our way, and then poHtely bid us good-by 
in the words: "May you go in the peace of God !" These 
were usually Christians, but we saw multitudes who were 
not, and while the non-Christians were noticeably more 
unkempt than the Christians, they, too, were invariably 
kind and respectful. He must be a hard-hearted man who 
could move among such a people without feeling himself 
drawn to them in kindly ways. 

That Koreans are patient may not be wholly to their 
credit, as there are limits to that virtue, especially when, 
as in Korea, it degenerates into apathy. But not all of the 
Koreans have been meekly acquiescent. A sense of in- 
justice will occasionally goad even apathetic people to deeds 
of unreasoning fury; and when they once begin to "run 
amuck," they are not apt to distinguish between friend 
and foe. Because the Roman Cathohc priests of Quelpart 
allowed some of their converts to serve as collectors of in- 
creased taxes about a couple of decades ago, the populace 
arose in a frenzy and murdered a large part of the Chris- 
tian community. Drought sometimes increases the general 
unrest, and the desire of foreign nations to find excuse for 
interference was long a fruitful source of trouble, as secret 
emissaries did not always hesitate to foment disturbances. 

The recklessness of despair found expression in the no- 
torious Tong-hak Society. Some of the members of this 
society were mere robbers; but many were men who had 
been goaded to desperation by wrong and oppression, and 
who had determined to struggle for better conditions at 
any cost to themselves. The movement made trouble in 
1893. It began, like the Tai-ping Rebellion in China, as 



THE KOREAN PEOPLE 61 

a religious reformation. Its founder, Choi Chei Ou, who 
had seen something of the Roman CathoHc missionaries 
and had vaguely discerned some of their teachings; alleged 
that he had a vision in 1859 at his home in Kyeng-chu, in 
southern Korea. He forthwith proclaimed a new faith 
which was to include the best elements of Confucianism, 
Buddhism, Taoism, and Romanism, and which he called 
Tong-hak, or Eastern Learning. Followers multiplied. 
Loyal at first to the dynasty, the hostility of the government 
and the sorrows of the people developed the Tong-haks, 
like the Tai-pings in China, into revolutionaries. Con- 
vinced that foreign influences were undermining the ancient 
institutions of the coimtry and arousing the anger of the 
gods, the Tong-haks were avowedly anti-foreign. They 
strenuously urged the preservation of the old ways, and 
presented appeals to the throne calling for the extermina- 
tion of foreign traders, the severing of all relations with 
other nations, and the prohibition of alien religions. The 
movement quickly became a menacing one, and for a time 
there was considerable alarm, not only at the court, but 
among foreigners. But after some bloody fights the ring- 
leaders were arrested and the danger passed. In 1894 the 
Tong-haks availed themselves of the strained relations 
between China and Japan to make a fresh outbreak. They 
murdered a French missionary, plimdered Roman Catholic 
villages, burned their houses, and started a revolutionary 
propaganda which assumed formidable proportions and 
helped to precipitate the China-Japan War. The society 
was conquered, but not subdued. It continued to exist 
with secret members in various parts of the country. Ad- 
vantage was taken of every opportimity to stir up trouble, 
and from time to time inflammatory proclamations were 
issued. These proclamations usually stated in plain lan- 
guage the grievances of the people, arraigned the magis- 
trates as cruel and corrupt, and called for reforms in every 
department of the government. 

The Boxer uprising of 1900 in China gave new hope to 
the Tong-haks, and they did their utmost to stir up a 



62 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

similar uprising in Korea. The following year they again 
fomented discord, and might have succeeded in seriously 
endangering the foreigners in Korea if the American Min- 
ister, Doctor Allen, had not gained timely knowledge of the 
plot and taken energetic measures to thwart it. The year 
1904 was anticipated with some apprehension because one 
of the ancient sages had prophesied that it would be a year 
of crisis in Korea. The hostihties between Russia and 
Japan were hailed as a fulfilment of this prophecy. The 
Tong-haks and the Russians were beHeved to be in secret 
alliance, and there were uncanny rumors of a general mas- 
sacre. The swift and decisive expulsion of the Russians 
by the Japanese prevented trouble; but the Tong-haks 
became the rallying-point of the Koreans who hated the 
Japanese and of the restless elements which war always 
multiplies, and they began a guerilla warfare which gave 
the Japanese no small annoyance before it was finally 
stamped out. 

One cannot sympathize with lawlessness, but there was 
much in the Tong-hak movement to stir the interest of 
thoughtful men. With all its errors, it represented the 
groping of patriotic men after better things. It is true 
that many were fanatics, bhnded by prejudice and passion, 
and that they were joined by vicious men who sought only 
plimder and rapine. Desperate men are not apt to be 
wise and gentle, and revolutionary movements have always 
attracted the outlaws of society. If David's cave of Adul- 
1am became a refuge for ''every one that was in distress, 
and every one that was in debt, and every one that was dis- 
contented," it is small wonder that the Tong-haks were 
reinforced from the same classes. The history of this 
Korean struggle is stained with plots and conflagrations and 
pillagings, in which the innocent often suffered with the 
guilty; but some day a poet may arise who will have the 
largeness of heart and the clearness of vision to discern the 
pathos and the tragedy of obscure, ignorant, poverty- 
stricken men, fighting lonely battles against insurmountable 
odds, without the inspiration of the world's recognition, 



THE KOREAN PEOPLE 63 

and leaving their bones to the dreaded Oriental calamity 
of unburied neglect, because in a crude wa}^ they beheved 
that justice and patriotism demanded the sacrifice. 

It is easy to pick out the defects of any people and, by 
concentrating attention upon them, create an unfavorable 
impression of their worth. But Americans do not like to 
be judged by the worst elements of their society, or by the 
folhes of those who should know better. The annals of 
Korea contain no more savage atrocity than the burning of 
negroes at the stake, which occurred twice in the United 
States within the months that these pages were written. 
The sorrowful conditions in Korea have been largely due 
to injustice, oppression, and superstition. With good gov- 
ernment, a fair chance, and a Christian basis of morals, 
I believe that the Koreans would develop into a fine people. 



CHAPTER IV 
KOREAN CUSTOMS, EDUCATION, AND LITERATURE 

The manners and customs of a people are always an in- 
teresting study. They not only have the charm of novelty, 
and perhaps oddity, to a foreign observer, but they often 
afford a clew to historical relationships or to characteristics 
of temperament or environment. 

Take, for example, the dress of the Koreans. It is at 
once distinctive, no matter how many other nationalities 
may be represented about him. The fashion came from 
China many centuries ago. The Chinese long since modi- 
fied their garb to suit their own tastes and those of their 
Manchu rulers; but the Korean dresses to-day as the 
Chinese did a thousand years ago. The outer clothing of 
the man consists of loose trousers and a flowing tunic of 
ample length and fulness. Gradations of rank are indi- 
cated by the color and material. Only officials may wear 
blue. If they are of low grade the material must be cotton, 
but above the third rank it may be silk. With the excep- 
tion of officials, the entire nation wears white, which is the 
color for mourning, a decidedly more sensible and artistic 
one than the sombre black of Western peoples. Custom 
requires that this mourning color shall be worn for three 
years after the death of a relative, and that when a king 
dies the whole nation shall be arrayed in white for a year. 
As some member of a large family circle is quite apt to die 
in three years, particularly in times of pestilence, and as 
three kings died in a single decade, the people came to the 
conclusion that it was easier and cheaper to wear white 
all the time than to buy special mourning clothes so often. 
A city street filled with these leisurely moving, white-robed 
figures, and a Sunday congregation arrayed in spotless 
white are picturesque to a high degree. 

64 



CUSTOMS, EDUCATION, AND LITERATURE 65 

The washing of these garments is the bane of the Korean 
wife. She takes them to pieces every time, pounds or 
thrashes them on stones by the riverside, spreads them out in 
the sun to dry, and '4rons" by beating them with sticks in 
her house. The monotonous rat-tat-tat of these sticks can 
be heard at all hours of the day and night. They are among 
the first things that the visitor hears when he enters a village 
and the last when he leaves it, so that he wonders whether 
the Korean woman ever sleeps. Such methods of laimder- 
ing are rather hard on the clothes; but when they survive, 
they come forth with a soft gloss which makes the proud 
husband a strikingly attractive figure. Unfortunately 
white is attractive only when it is clean, and perhaps one 
reason why the average Korean impresses one as the most 
untidy man in Asia is because his white clothing makes 
conspicuous a dirt which the Chinese dark-blue cloth does 
not so readily show. 

The shoe is not so distinctive — a coarse sandal of twisted 
rice straw for the poor, and Chinese footwear for those who 
are able to afford it. The hat is more unique. It has a 
broad brim, a small round crown considerably too small 
for the head, and it is tied under the chin. Some of the 
poorest people wear hats made of split bamboo, but every 
Korean covets a tile of silk thread or horsehair. A boy 
engaged to be married wears a white hat of a special shape, 
but the hats of men are black. From a foreign view-point 
the hat is absurdly unbecoming, but the Korean highly 
prizes it, and often pays for it a sum which he can ill afford. 
But while the foreigner smiles at this grotesque head cover- 
ing, I fear that even the Korean's habitual courtesy would 
be severely strained if he could see some of the monstrosi- 
ties with which the women of New York "adorn" their 
heads. 

The method of dressing the hair was, however, the most 
distinctive feature of a Korean of the old regime. He wore 
it parted in the middle and hanging in a long braid imtil he 
was betrothed, when he was invested with the far-famed 
topknot. This investiture was an important event in the 



GG THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

life of a Korean. There was an elaborate ceremony in the 
presence of a large gathering of friends, and the clothing 
and the hat provided for the candidate were as costly as 
the means of the family permitted. The youth was seated 
with his face toward the point of the compass which the 
geomancer had indicated as lucky. The master of cere- 
monies then solemnly unwound the boyish plait, shaved 
a spot about three inches in diameter on the top of the 
head, and pulled the hair tightly about it into a topknot 
about three inches in height, and an inch and a half in 
diameter. A cap was placed upon the head and closely 
tied, and above all was placed a new hat. The candidate 
was now supposed to have passed from youth to manhood, 
and ^Hhe man,'^ although still at the age that we would 
call boyish, ceremoniously bowed to all his relations, be- 
ginning with the eldest, and offered solemn sacrifices to his 
deceased ancestors. A feast followed and formal calls 
were made upon friends of the family. The cost of this 
ceremony, with its feasting and supphes of new clothing 
and the attendant expenses, was often so great as to involve 
a family in debt for years. 

In old Korea, the topknot was as characteristic as the 
queue in China, and far more significant, for it originated, 
not as a badge of submission to a conqueror, but as an ex- 
pression of the people^s ancient and venerated beliefs. 
The tenacity with which the Koreans cling to their ancient 
customs was illustrated when the Japanese, after their 
occupation of the countiy in the war with Russia, undertook 
to make certain reforms. In spite of the fact that they 
were Orientals themselves and therefore supposed to know 
something of the power of Asiatic customs, they were ap- 
parently of the opinion that they could reform Korea out 
of hand. The Koreans sullenly listened to orders to shorten 
and narrow their capacious sleeves, wear coats of a certain 
color, make hat-brims of prescribed width, and, in the case 
of women, to uncover their faces when on the streets. 
But the Hmit of self-control was passed when the subser- 
vient acting home Minister of the Korean Government 



CUSTOMS, EDUCATION, AND LITERATURE 67 

commanded the cutting of the topknot — the sign and seal 
of old Korea, the hall-mark of Korean nationality, and the 
embodiment of Korean traditions and pride of race. The 
excitement and consternation were unparalleled. The 
Koreans submitted with little or no protest to many other 
changes that would have aroused an Anglo-Saxon people, 
but when their sacred topknot was touched the anger of 
this peaceable race flamed up. ''Tender associations of 
early manhood, honored family traditions, ghostly super- 
stition, the anger and disgust of ancestral spirits, the iron 
grip of long custom, the loathing of the effenunate, sensual, 
and despised Buddhist priests, all forbade this desecration. 
Their pride, self-respect, and dignit}^ w^ere all assailed and 
crushed under foot. Sullen, angry faces were seen every- 
where, sounds of wailing and woe were heard continually 
in everj^ house, for the women took it even harder than the 
men. Farmers and carriers of food and fuel refused to bring 
their produce to market, for guards stood at the gates and 
cut off with their sw^ords every topknot as it came through.^' ^ 
The capital began to suffer for want of supplies. Business 
was paralyzed. The Japanese regime was brief, and the 
order was soon rescinded, but not before it had been demon- 
strated that it is a serious matter to tamper wdth a Korean 
topknot. 

AVhen the Japanese regained control after the Russia- 
Japan War, they renewed their efforts to abolish the top- 
knot. They were too discreet this time to issue an order, 
but they succeeded in ''persuading" the new Emperor, the 
Crown Prince, and several members of the court to cut off 
their topknots at the time of the coronation, August 27, 
1907; and under royal example and the know^n wishes of 
their new rulers, the days of this notable native custom are 
passing wdth the boimd feet of Chinese women. At the 
time of my first visit to Korea, in 1901, I did not see a 
single Korean without a topknot. During my second 
visit, in 1909, I saw hundreds of men and bo3^s who had 
cut their hair in the pompadour fashion of the Japanese. 

^ Mrs. Underwood, Fifteen Years Among the Top-Kjiots, 167-168. 



68 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

To-day the Christians, the boys in the mission schools, 
and most of the people in the cities have adopted the 
modern style and the topknot is rapidly becoming excep- 
tional. The disappearance of this venerable symbol is 
significant, for it testifies, more eloquently perhaps than 
anything else could do, to the passing of ancient Korea and 
the dawning of a new era. 

There is probably no other country in the world where 
niceties of etiquette are more rigidly followed, or where they 
signify so much. The foreign visitor who calls to pay his 
respects to the local magistrate may flatter himself that he 
is being received with every mark of distinction, while the 
Korean attendants are chuckhng beneath their impassive 
exteriors over the indignities that are being heaped upon 
him. For example, if the magistrate has high regard for 
his visitor, he will meet him at the outer gate of the yamen; 
if he wishes to pay him only ordinary courtesy, he will 
meet him outside of the middle gate; if he cares Httle about 
him, he will meet him inside the middle gate; if he deems 
him an inferior, he will greet him on the piazza; and if he 
despises him, he will await him in his audience-chamber. 
The location of the chair which the caller is to occupy is 
also significant. If the Korean feels that his visitor is of 
equal rank, the chair is so placed that the caller will face 
the east; if he regards him as a subordinate, he will see 
that the caller faces the south; and if he has contempt for 
him, the caller will find his chair facing the north; the 
host all the time facing the west. In the conversation that 
ensues, the magistrate indicates his respect for his caller, 
or his lack of it, by the terminations of his words, which in- 
dicate vai^dng degrees of esteem and the Korean's concep- 
tion of the standing of his guest. 

Etiquette dominates every occasion and period of life 
and reaches its climax in connection with death. The 
Korean Government issued an official Guide to Mourners, 
which prescribed the necessary forms and ceremonies in 
minute detail. The body was to be carefully washed, and 
then laid out on a plank which had been painted with seven 



CUSTOMS, EDUCATION, AND LITERATURE 69 

stars. This was called 'Hhe star board/' and in popular 
speech was a symbol of death. Precise instructions were 
given regarding the size and thickness of the coffin, the way 
the body was to be placed in it, the decoration of the cham- 
ber in which the coffin was to lie, when and how the weeping 
must be done, and what clothing the mourner must wear 
as he entered the room for this purpose. The interval be- 
tween death and funeral was carefully determined in ac- 
cordance with the rank of the deceased. A common man 
might be interred in three days. The interval lengthened 
with the importance of the dead, until in the case of a mem- 
ber of the royal family it was nine months. The location 
of the grave must be determined with special care, and the 
site selected must, if possible, be on high ground command- 
ing a good view. For the funeral every act was minutely 
prescribed, and Dame Fashion in Europe and America is 
not half so particular in these matters as she is in Korea. 
The body is arrayed in red, blue, and yellow garments. 
The hour for the funeral is usually, though not always, at 
sunset, so that the colored lanterns used on such occasions 
can show off to better advantage. The bearers wear big 
yellow hats with garlands of flowers, which are blue and 
pink when they can be obtained. The chief mourner is 
clad in sackcloth, and is almost completely covered by a 
huge conical bamboo hat, which he is expected to wear for 
a considerable period after the funeral, three years for a 
father. The hat-brim droops so low that it completely 
conceals the head, because "heaven is angry with the 
mourner and does not wish to look upon his face." An- 
other mourner, from whose hat bits of colored ribbon are 
flying, walks backward ringing a bell and chanting a dirge. 
The cofiin is borne on a platform under a cover supported 
by foiu- posts, and draped with curtains, which the Koreans 
fondly believe to be very handsome. The cover is usually 
surmounted by representations of birds, and streamers of 
brightly colored ribbons hang from the sides. Painted 
birds and dragons are apt to be in evidence, and a variety 
of musical instruments which can be heard afar. Thus 



70 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

the procession moves slowly on, the pall-bearers joining in 
ii monotonous chant, and sometimes stopping or turning 
backward for a short distance to express their sorrowful 
reluctance that they must bear one whom they loved to the 
grave. 

Near the principal cities are extensive spaces devoted to 
graves. Koreans are more particular about their last 
resting-place than about the place where they spend their 
lives. They do not object to low, swampy ground for their 
hovels, and they huddle their houses together even when 
there is no apparent necessity for doing so. But when this 
poor man dies, he must have a well-kept grave on a hill- 
side commanding a fine view. Members of the royal 
family and other persons of high rank insist on generous 
spaces about their graves; and as kings and princes and 
nobles have been dying for centuries, vast areas about the 
capital are peopled by the dead. The grave of a noble 
is a high mound standing, if possible, in a horseshoe- 
shaped enclosure on a terraced hillside, and surrounded 
by a stone fence. A little altar and a lantern or two, also 
of stone, are in front of the grave. The royal tombs are 
quite imposing. The mounds, altars, and lanterns are of 
larger size; a temple contains memorial tablets, stately 
pine-trees grow about them, and the avenues of approach 
are lined with grotesquely carved stone figures of warriors, 
pnests, servants, and horses.^ 

The period of mourning is fixed by equally stringent 
rules. Even if a man is about to be married, when a death 
occurs in the family he must postpone his wedding for a 
period exactly conmiensurate with the closeness of his re- 
lationship to the departed, that for a parent or a grand- 
parent being, as we have seen, three years. This is a griev- 
ous hardship in a countr}^ where a man, whatever his age, 
is treated as a boy and assigned to the lowest place imtil 
he has a wife, and where the postponement of his hopes, 
and especially if prolonged by other deaths, may seriously 
delay and perhaps altogether prevent the birth of sons who 

1 Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 61-62. 



CUSTOMS, EDUCATION, AND LITERATURE 71 

can provide for his old age and reverence his departed spirit. 
In the Grammaire Coreenne sl Korean is represented as be- 
waiHng his hard lot as follows: 

"My parents, thinking of my marriage, had arranged my be- 
trothal; but some time before the preparations were concluded, my 
future grandfather died and it became necessary to wait three years. 
Hardly had I put off mourning, when I was called on to lament the 
death of my poor father. I was now compelled to wait still another 
three years. These three years finished, behold my mother-in-law, 
who was to be, died and three years passed away. Finally, I had 
the misfortune to lose my poor mother, which required me to wait 
again three years. And so, three times four — a dozen years — ^have 
elapsed, during which we have waited the one for the other. By this 
time, she who was to be my wife fell ill. As she was upon the point 
of death, I went to make her a visit. My intended brother-in-law, 
came to see me, found me, and said: 'Although the ceremonies of 
marriage have not been made, they may certainly consider you as 
married, therefore come and see her." Upon his invitation, I entered 
her house, but we had hardly blown a puff of smoke one before the 
other than she died. Seeing this, I have no more wished even to 
dream at night. I am not yet married. You may understand, then^ 
why I have neither wife, children nor home." ^ 

Koreans are inveterate gossipers. The rural population 
is not scattered on farms as in England and America, but 
is segregated in hamlets for protection and companionship. 
Privacy is impossible in the. lightly constructed houses 
closely huddled together, and the lack of any form of pubhc 
amusement or recreation leaves little to occupy the mind 
except the daily chat and doings of neighbors. The larger 
towns have market-days once or twice a week, when the 
villagers throng in from all the adjacent hamlets, their bul- 
locks and ponies heavily loaded with produce. Shops are 
few and small, and fruit, grain, vegetables, utensils, clothing, 
and all sorts of merchandise are exposed on mats laid in 
the streets. The people squat about them and news flies 
easily from lip to lip. The day is spent in incessant bar- 
gaining and gossiping, the people from the country ex- 
changing their produce for all sorts of domestic and im- 

* Quoted by Griffis in Korea the Hermit Nation, pp. 281-282. 



72 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

ported articles such as cotton cloth, wooden combs, pipes, 
tobacco, straw shoes, dried fish, matches, sugar, matting, 
etc. At all times Koreans are fond of visiting one an- 
other's houses, and are never so happy as when they are 
gathered in groups smoking and retailing the stories of the 
community. But is this not a village characteristic the 
world over? Is there an American hamlet in which the 
sayings and doings of every one are not recounted with 
gusto around half the firesides of the place? Korean 
gossip usually has the merit of good nature, at least, which 
is more than can be said of some Western gossip. 

There are times, however, when a dispute waxes hot and 
results in a Korean "fight.'' Voices become loud and 
angry. Speech grows bitter and filled with invective and 
expressions of contempt. Faces are contorted with pas- 
sion, eyes glare, and gesticulation is frantic. When the 
frenzied participants begin to leap up and down, tear their 
hair and foam at the mouth, the spectator from the West 
feels sure that gory murder is about to be committed. But 
the war is ordinarily one of words rather than deeds, and 
the fighters continue to hurl maledictions and curses at 
each other until they are so overcome by passion that they 
fall to the ground in the exhaustion of hysterical collapse. 
Such personal quarrels between neighbors do not mean that 
Koreans cannot fight in right good earnest against a com- 
mon enemy. Korea has seen many bloody battles, as we 
have noted in other pages; but common disputes are not 
so apt to issue in broken heads as they are in some other 
lands. 

Woman has a lower place in Korea than in China or 
Japan. She has less freedom and less influence. Parents 
choose her husband, all details are managed by "a go- 
between," and the bride is not supposed to see her husband 
until the wedding-day. After that he deems it beneath 
his dignity to converse with her or to ask her opinion about 
anything. Her function is merely to bear him the coveted 
sons and otherwise to keep out of sight as much as possible. 

There is no family life, as we understand the term. Re- 







M 



CUSTOMS, EDUCATION, x\ND LITERATURE 73 

spectable women of any social standing are expected to 
seclude themselves in a separate part of the house. Until 
recently it was deemed a reproach for a woman over ten 
or twelve years of age to be seen by any man except her 
father or husband. She must not go upon the streets 
without special permission, and then only when heavily 
veiled; borne in a closed chair, and accompanied by suitable 
attendants. Women of the lower classes Hve like beasts 
of burden, and get considerably less care. Their lives are 
an unending drudgery. They toil not only in the house 
but in the fields. They are not deemed worthy of education. 
A Korean woman is not supposed to have any individuality 
of her own. The name given her at birth is used only in 
her own family. Outside of that she is known simply as 
the daughter or the sister or the mother of some man. 
As a wife her identity is lost in that of her husband. Even 
her parents cease to use the name which they gave her in 
infancy, and describe her by the name of the place where 
she is living. A husband may have as many concubines 
and dancing-girls as he pleases, but a wife must preserve 
her virtue. He may remarry as often as he likes if his 
first wife or wives die; but a widow is not supposed to re- 
marry, and if she does, she makes herself infamous, and 
her children by any subsequent marriage are regarded as 
illegitimate. "What is woman in Korea!" bitterly ex- 
claimed a woman to a missionary, who was urging her to 
send her daughter to school. "After the dogs and pigs 
were made, there was nothing left to be done, so woman 
was created — lowest of the low!" 

The Korean woman has, indeed, certain privileges, in 
theory. She is referred to with terminations that indicate 
respect. Men make way for her chair on the street. The 
part of the house which she occupies is regarded as sacred 
to her, and no right-minded Korean would think of tres- 
passing upon it. Even a criminal may not be sought for 
in a woman's room, and if a disgraced official should take 
refuge there, he could not be arrested unless he could be 
lured outside. To break into a woman's apartment is a 



74 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

crime that is severely punished. When the missionaries 
first went to Korea, they found a quaint method of per- 
mitting women to go abroad without scandal. Instead of 
having a curfew for children, there was one for men. 
They were to be in the house by nine o'clock so that their 
waves and daughters could promenade the streets without 
reproach. If a man had to be out after that hour and met 
a w^oman, he was expected to shield his face with a fan and 
hasten from her. To touch her or even speak to her in such 
circumstances was a punishable offense. 

These customs belonged to the Korea which is now 
rapidly passing away. The lady of to-day does not find 
the streets reserved for her use after nine o'clock, nor is she 
treated with special respect, except where Christian teach- 
ing has improved her status. She is still a pathetic figure, 
ignorant, superstitious, and old and withered at forty. 

One cannot leave this subject without some reference to 
the gesang, the singing and dancing girls who occupy about 
the same place in society as the geishas of Japan. Some 
were kept by the government and court ministers, and were 
supported out of the public treasury. There were usually 
about seventy-five connected with the palace in Seoul, 
and most officials and wealthy men maintained a number, 
or employed them for special occasions. They are trained 
from childhood for their careers and are taught many ac- 
complishments which are denied to other girls. As they 
are not secluded like other women, they are more in evi- 
dence, and the greater freedom of movement which they 
are permitted has given them an ease of manner in sharp 
contrast with the timidity and even awkwardness of the 
average Korean woman. Their singing and dancing are 
features of most entertainments. The moral reputation 
of the gesang is bad. In spite of their popularity with 
officials, the prominence they are given at entertainments, 
and the presents and fine dresses which they receive, no 
Korean would think of marrying one. In Japan a geisha 
occasionally becomes the wife of a man of good position, 
but there is no such possibility in the Hfe of a Korean 



CUSTOMS, EDUCATION, AND LITERATURE 75 

gesang. She is simply the plaything of men, a pitiful little 
figure to amuse him for a fleeting time and then to be cast 
out to die in neglect and abuse. 

The language of Korea differs from both the Chinese and 
the Japanese, although it is more closely related to the 
former than to the latter, for Korean learning originally 
came from China. The character used in the written lan- 
guage is the Chinese, and Chinese words are largely employed 
in the conversation and literary essays of the higher classes. 
The pronunciation is quite different from that heard in 
China and the characters themselves have undergone some 
modifications. A different alphabet called the Un-mun is 
in use among the common people who can read and write. 
It consists of twenty-five characters, and is simphcity it- 
self compared with the Chinese hieroglyphics. It is be- 
Heved to have originated with a Buddhist priest named 
Syel Chong, in the year 1446. It was regarded with con- 
tempt until the missionaries, finding that it was better 
adapted to their use than the cumbersome Chinese char- 
acters, and more easily taught to the illiterate people, 
issued many of their books and tracts in it. They trans- 
lated the New Testament, prepared grammars and dic- 
tionaries, and were rapidly rehabihtating the Un-mun in 
some such way as Wyclif 's translation of the Bible inaugu- 
rated a new era for English. In 1895, the official Gazette, 
which hitherto had been printed only in Chinese characters, 
adopted a combination of the Un-mun and the Chinese, 
and for some time before the Japanese occupation all pubhc 
edicts were in the Un-mun as well as in the Chinese 
character. 

The Korean language is a veiy difficult one for a for- 
eigner to acquire, partly because of this division into a 
sort of Koreanized Chinese and a vernacular Un-mun, and 
partly because each tongue presents formidable obstacles 
to the ears and vocal organs of a foreigner. The meaning 
of a given word is largely determined by inflection and 
termination, with divisions and subdivisions that are dis- 
tracting to the learner. 



76 THE MASTERY 0¥ THE FAR EAST 

The literature of Korea is less voluminous and valuable 
than might be expected when one considers the venera- 
tion in which scholarship is held, and the official positions 
that were supposed, as in China, to be the rewards of 
literaiy merit. The compositions that were most admired 
seem almost absurd when judged by the canons of Western 
learning, abounding in quotations from the classics, pom- 
pous phraseSj rhetorical flourishes, and endless redundan- 
cies. Books of this kind are numerous enough. The royal 
hbrary in the palace at Seoul is a notable depository of such 
alleged literature, some of it in elaborate and costly bind- 
ings. Books in the Un-mun are more common, Seoul alone 
having a number of circulating libraries. Unfortunately, 
most of the volumes are not only valueless as literature, but 
injurious to morals, filled with coarse jests and obscene 
details. A majority of the common people can neither read 
nor write, but every hamlet has at least one or two men 
who serve as the readers and story-tellers of the com- 
munity, and recite the books to groups of eager listeners. 

The folk-lore songs and tales are often interesting and 
occasionally of real worth. Some indicate the view of life 
which finds expression in the Ruhaiyat of Omar Khayyam. 
The author of that Epicurean poem might have found a 
congenial spirit in the writer of the following Korean song: 

" Time, O Time, flee not away ! 

Fresh spring's ruddy face is growing old. 

If we don't play now, when shall we play ? 

When once we mortals are dead and cold. 

Like the mist on the mountains we fade away. 

Let us feast, let us play. 

If we don't play now, if we don't feast now. 

When shall we feast, and when shall we play?" 

Another poem suggests a literary vein worthy of further 
exploration. An ambitious youth who is journeying to the 
capital for the national examinations stops to rest on a 
mountainside, and as he muses about his predecessors who 
must have trodden the same path in their hope of fame, 



CUSTOMS, EDUCATION, AND LITERATURE 77 

he breaks forth into a poetic summons to the spirit of the 
mountain, which towers above him: 

" O mountain blue, 
Deliver up thy lore. Tell me, this hour, the name 
Of him most worthy — be he child, or man, or sage — 
Who 'neath thy summit, hailed to-morrow, wrestling with 
To-day or reached out memory^s hands toward yesterday. 
Deliver up thy lore.'* 

At this point the youth falls asleep, and the spirit of the 
mountain tells him in his dreams the long story of the 
worthy ones that had preceded him. As he awakes and 
resumes his journey he implores the mountain to add his 
name to the honored Hst: 

" O mountain blue, 
Be thou my cenotaph; and when, long ages hence, 
Some youth, presumptuous, shall again thy secret guess. 
Thy lips unseal, among the names of them who claim 
The guerdon of thy praise, I pray let mine appear. 
Be thou my cenotaph." 

The names which these simple-hearted people give to 
natural objects reveal an imagination and love of beauty 
in strange contrast with their squalid villages, though oc- 
casionally a name indicates superstition as well as imagina- 
tion. Mountain-Facing-the-Sun, White Cloud, The Peak 
of a Thousand Buddhas, Heaven-Reaching, Cloud-Toucher, 
Sword Moimtain, Lasting Peace, and Changing Cloud are 
names given to some of their mountains. Sheet of Re- 
splendent Water, Water-that-slides-as-straight-as-a-sword 
and Falling Snow Cataract, suggest an appreciation of the 
beauty of streams. An inn which has a fine outlook is 
called The House Fronting the Moon. Another, which 
affords a view of the sunrise, is called The House of the 
Morning Sun. Mighty Fortress, Rock-loving Chamber, 
Cave Spirit, Morning Star, and The Chamber Between the 
Strong Fortress and the Tender Verdure are other charac- 
teristic names. Even the yamens of the officials are apt 



78 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

to have names which suggest an attractiveness m marked 
contrast with their dilapidation, such as Little Floweiy 
House, Rising Cloud, Gate of Lapis Lazuh, and Man- 
sion Near the Whirlpool. These are but a few illustrations 
of names all over the country. Almost every town, river, 
valley, or natural object of an}^ kind has a name which indi- 
cates the native conception of its beauty or of some other 
characteristic.^ 

When one turns to the intellectual training which Koreans 
receive, he finds the emptiest educational system imagina- 
ble. The typical Korean school-teacher was a solemn- 
looking old gentleman who wore immense spectacles, which 
were designed not to aid the eyes but to give a scholarly 
and venerable aspect to the wearer. The pupils squatted 
upon the floor, swayed their bodies backward and forward, 
and monotonously and stridently chanted Chinese classics. 

Such schools afforded the only education that Korea 
could boast until 1884, when, largely influenced by the 
American Minister, Mr. Allen, the King asked the govern- 
ment of the United States to send to Korea three men for 
educational work. The American Secretary of State re- 
ferred the request to General John Eaton, then United 
States Commissioner of Education, who selected Mr. 
Homer B. Hulbert, Mr. George W. Gilmore, and Mr. 
Dalzell A. Bunker, all three being students in Union The- 
ological Seminary, New York City. They arrived in Korea 
July 4, 1886, when a thousand people a day were dying of 
cholera. Undismayed, the three young men immediately 
started an English school under the patronage and support 
of the government. The King took a personal interest in 
the institution, and for several years conducted the examina- 
tions in pei-son, the students l^dng prone upon the floor 
before his Majesty. The course of the young American 
educators was not a smooth one. Western pedagogical 
methods did not harmonize with deeply rooted prejudices, 
official jealousies and corruptions, and the arbitrary will 
of a King who was often petulant and exacting. Mr. Gil- 

1 Cf. Griffis, p. 233. 



CUSTOMS, EDUCATION, AND LITERATURE 79 

more returned to America in 1888. Mr. Bimker remained 
for seven years, when he entered the Methodist Mission. 
Mr. Hulbert resigned after a service of five years, but in 
1897; at the urgent request of the King, he took charge of 
the Government Normal School, which had been recently 
organized and had been superintended by a Japanese un- 
til the murder of the Queen. This school became quite 
influential and trained a considerable number of young 
men who, after their graduation, became teachers in the 
government common schools in the capital and prov- 
inces. 

Influenced to some extent hy the Japanese, the official 
literary examinations were abolished in 1894, and a Depart- 
ment of Education was constituted the following year. 
This gave a new impetus to the desire for Western learn- 
ing, and for a time the outlook was more promising. But 
the department was so languidly and ineffectively admin- 
istered that progress was slow and fitful. In 1899 the gov- 
ernment founded the Royal English School in Seoul, for 
the sons of families of the higher classes, erected an excel- 
lent building, and asked Professor Hulbert to transfer his 
services to it. He quickly made it influential, but the gov- 
ernment never adequately supported it, or for that matter 
any of the other schools under its care. When the Japa- 
nese came the government system included only fifty 
schools, most of them with a mere handful of pupils, and 
the national budget assigned only $162,792 to education, 
and $135,074 of this was expended in Seoul, leaving only 
$27,718 for all the rest of the country. A few French, 
Russian, and Japanese schools followed the establishment 
of the Royal English School, and were conducted with 
varying degrees of success, but they were not important 
enough to affect materially the prevailing intellectual 
stagnation. 

We are discussing now the educational methods of old 
Korea prior to the Japanese occupation, and we may, 
therefore, reserve for subsequent discussion the notable 
later increase in the number and quality of mission schools 



80 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

and the programme of the Japanese Bureau of Education. 
Suffice it here that it was not until after the year 1900 that 
modern educational facilities began to be available for any 
appreciable number of Koreans, and even then they were 
on a very limited scale for the first decade of the century. 
This fact should be taken into account in forming a fair 
judgment regarding the intelligence and mental develop- 
ment of the Korean people. 



r 



CHAPTER V 
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF THE KOREANS 

The traveller in Korea is impressed by the absence of 
those outward manifestations of rehgion which are so 
numerous in other Asiatic lands. There is no temple in 
all Seoul, if we except a poor Confucian one. Outside of 
the city there is one to the God of War, but few Koreans 
ever visit it. Throughout the country the evidences of 
public worship are few and far between. One who is fa- 
miliar with the innumerable temples in Japan, China, and 
Siam, is at first disposed to regard Korea as a land without 
a rehgion. 

A closer study will show that, while there is no out- 
wardly established rehgion with its temples and prescribed 
observances, there are religious customs which have great 
power over the lives of the people. Indeed Korea may be 
said to have three reHgions. Buddhism entered from China 
as far back as 371 A. D. It attained great influence, and 
its numerous priests included some of the ablest men in 
the kingdom. Great monasteries on some of the moun- 
tains still attest the wealth and power which Buddhism 
once enjoyed. The buildings are massive, and the Ubraries 
contain rare old books and manuscripts. The temples are 
richly adorned, and their treasure-boxes are filled with the 
gifts of kings and princes. Some of these monasteries were 
estabhshed as far back as the sixth centmy, and their ap- 
pearance still testifies to the power which Buddhism long 
wielded in the Hermit Nation. Few travellers see them, 
for they are in remote parts of the country, and are rather 
difficult of access. Mrs. Bishop says that at Keum Kang 
San in the Diamond Mountains, she found four of these 
great monasteries, whose shrines were the headquarters of 

81 



82 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

about four hundred and fifty nuns with a thousand paid 
servitors. 

Many Koreans annually \isit the famous mountain mon- 
asteries. A charitable judgment may consider a few of 
them devout pilgrims, but a large majority of the alleged 
votaries are far from religious in spirit and puipose. What 
Hamel wrote two hundred and fifty years ago has been 
true ever since: "The nobles frequent the monasteries very 
much to divert themselves there with common women or 
others they carry with them, because they are generally 
deliciously seated and veiy pleasant for prospect and fine 
gardens. So that they might better be called pleasure- 
houses than templeS; which is to be understood of the 
common monasteries, where the religious men love to drink 
hard."i 

Like the Jesuits in some European countries, the fond- 
ness of Buddhist monks for political intrigue resulted in 
their overthi'ow. They made themselves so disliked and 
feared in connection with the preceding dynasty, and were 
so generally held responsible for its downfall, that they 
lost practically all their power, and for more than five hun- 
dred years Buddhist priests were forbidden to enter the 
capital. Korean Buddhism has decayed until it now re- 
tains hardly a vestige of its former power, and the monks 
are among the most despised of men. They well deserve 
the contempt in which they are held. They are ignorant 
and superstitious, unfamiliar even with their own religion, 
and understanding only a few of its simplest rites. Their 
moral reputation is exceedingly bad. I saw several of them 
outside the walls of Seoul, but they appeared to have but a 
small following, and they looked dejected and dirty. It 
was easy to identify them by their shaven heads, beehive- 
shaped hats, grass-cloth coats, rosary, and staff. 

In their days of power and prestige Korean Buddhists 
sent missionaries to Japan, and the Island Empire was con- 
verted to the faith. But modern Japanese Buddhism is 
ashamed of its parentage. In 1876 one of the more pro- 

^ Quoted by Lord Curzon in Problems of the Far East, p. 105. 



RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF THE KOREANS 83 

gressive Buddhist sects of Japaii; the Shin, sent represen- 
tatives to Korea to see if they could not win the people to 
a purer type of Buddhism. They managed to convert a 
number of young Koreans, six of whom went to Japan to 
receive a special education in the Shin School at Kyoto; 
but the effort was short-hved. Buddhism in Korea ap- 
peared to be dead beyond possibility of resurrection. Since 
the country has been incorporated into the Empire the 
Buddhists of Japan have been making more resolute efforts 
to revive Buddhism in Korea. A large majority of the 
Japanese who have permanently settled in the peninsula of 
course are Buddhists. They have brought priests from the 
mother country, and are building temples, estabhshing 
Buddhist Sunday-schools, and circulating Buddhist litera- 
ture. A definite propaganda has been undertaken, and 
Buddhism may once more take its place as one of the re- 
hgions of Korea. 

Confucianism is generally considered one of the rehgions 
of Korea, coming of course from China, from which Korea 
received its Hterature and civiKzation. Confucius would 
probably be as much surprised as Gautama would be if 
the two sages could visit Korea and see what passes for 
their respective religions. The Koreans have departed 
more widely from true Confucianism than the Chinese, for 
their temperament is not so practical and materiahstic, 
and they craved a faith more emotional and mystical. 
But they have all the Chinese reverence for ancestors, and 
their customs in this respect are thoroughly Confucian. 
Fihal piety is highly rewarded. A man who does not rever- 
ence his father, living or dead, is deemed the worst of repro- 
bates. Obedience does not always extend to the mother, 
but the father is regarded with a reverence bordering upon 
awe, a son sometimes kneeling in the street when his father 
approaches. To be disrespectful to a parent is to commit 
a serious offense; to strike him is to deserve capital punish- 
ment; to fail to mourn for him on his death the prescribed 
period of thirty-six months is a disgrace, and if the son 
is an official he must retire from office for that purpose. 



84 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

A Korean Confucian tract states that the Emperor U Jai-sun 
(2255-2205 B. C.) gathered his disciples together and taught 
them the principles of fiHal etiquette, which included the 
following instructions: 

"Sons must rise at cock-crow. . . . When properly dressed, they 
must present themselves before their parents and inquire of them 
whether the room is warm and everything is to their comfort. . . . 
There are many ways in which a son is to serve his parents. If their 
bodies itch, he is to scratch them ; when they wash, to hold the bowl 
so that the parents may bathe in comfort, and when ready for it to 
hand them the towel; to respectfully inquire what they will take 
to eat, and then with honor to serve the meal ; to wait until a portion 
of the food is eaten so as to ascertain whether it is to their taste and 
then to retire. After the meal, both son and daughter-in-law should 
go to the parents to learn from them whether there is anything they 
wish done or errand to run. . . . When nothing has been given 
them to do, to remain where the parents are, so that they may receive 
their orders. When spoken to, always to reply in humility and never 
to answer back. . . . There are a number of things that must not 
be done in the presence of a parent — to yawn; to peep about; to 
blow the nose; if the body is cold not to don extra clothes before 
them; however one's body may itch, not to scratch it; and never to 
laugh at anything unless the parent laughs. . . . Etiquette requires 
that a son shall neither sit on a higher level nor in front of a parent; 
that he shall not stand or walk immediately in front of them. . . . 
Reverence of parents is similar to the carrying of a bowl full of water: 
unless much care is exercised the water will be spilt. In like manner, 
unless much care is taken in doing all things respectfully and cor- 
rectly, an offense against the parent is committed. ... If told to 
do a thing that may seem impossible to perform, it is nevertheless 
necessary that the attempt should be made." 

A Korean who can afford it usually has a small separate 
building in the rear of his house where he keeps his ances- 
tral tablets, and where at stated periods he offers sacrifices 
to his deceased parents. A missionary writes that during 
an itinerating tour he saw three well-dressed Korean gentle- 
men and their servants around a grave on the crest of a 
hill, worshipping the spirits of their ancestors. Offerings 
of food were upon the ground in front of the tomb, before 
which each of the men kneeled in turn, prostrating himself 



RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF THE KOREANS 85 

reverently several times, with forehead touching the ground. 
The food-offerings consisted of large plates of sliced dough- 
like bread, dishes filled with candies, generous platters of 
sHced pork, fried chicken, fish, fresh persimmons, peeled 
pears and vegetables, and good-sized jars of seul (a distilled 
liqueur). Enormous sums in the aggregate are spent in 
offerings to deceased ancestors; but as the food is often 
eaten by the living after it has been presented to the dead, 
the waste is not total. 

Koreans would interest English and American spiritual- 
ists. Professor Hulbert says that after the death of a rela- 
tive or friend they frequently call up the spirit of the dead 
to ask it questions, or call up the ruler of Hades to bribe 
him with gifts to let the departed one off easy. The spirit 
of the dead frequently "promises '^ in turn to do what he 
can with the authorities of the nether world to bring good 
luck to the relatives and friends left behind. This is all 
done through a medium or sorceress, who goes into a trance 
and is supposed to become possessed by the spirit with which 
the people wish to communicate. Intelligent Confucian- 
ists in China are probably no more proud of their co- 
religionists in Korea than the Buddhists of Japan are of 
theirs, for Korean Confucianism is a sorry caricature of 
their faith. 

The dominant religion of Korea, or rather the dominant 
superstition, is Animism. Indeed Animism is the heavy 
substratum of faith in practically all non-Christian lands 
except those in which the monotheistic creed of Islam 
prevails, and even there traces of it may be found. It is 
the primitive religion outside of the pale of revelation. 
Aboriginal peoples are almost invariably animists. Vast 
populations in Africa are wholly animistic. All of the 
elaborate religious systems in other lands found Animism 
already existing and no one of them wholly succeeded in 
displacing it. It was universal in China when Confucius 
arose, and his ancestral worship is really a development 
of it. Modem China is pervaded by fear of evil spirits, and 
its Buddhism and Taoism are now half animistic. One of 



SG THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

the chief reasons why caste was developed by the Brahmans 
of India was the prevalence of Animism from which they 
wished to protect their adherents. Before Buddhism was 
introduced into Burma, about 400 A. D., all the people were 
spirit-worshippers, as many of them still are. They pros- 
trate themselves before an image of Buddha in a temple, 
Ijut outside of it they tremble at the thought of evil spirits 
in spite of the fact that Buddhism is not supposed to 
countenance belief in demons. 

Animism is the religion of fear, of ghosts and portents 
and witches and demons. Air, earth, and water teem with 
them. They lurk in dark ravines and whisper menace 
from tree-tops. They laugh derisively in running streams. 
They shriek in the tempest and roar in the thunder, and the 
lightning is the glaring of their angry eyes. They inhabit 
the soil so that its surface must not be broken by the hus- 
bandman or the miner unless incantations or propitiatory 
offerings are first offered. They jeeringly sit on roofs and 
slyly creep into windows and down chimneys. These grin- 
ning, malignant demons haunt every waking and sleeping 
moment of human life. They swarm at man's birth, and 
death is their final victory over him. Terror of them 
weighs upon existence like a nightmare, and turns life into 
a hell of shuddering, sobbing fright. Our own ancestors 
knew this baleful fear. German forests were once the 
scenes of animistic incantations. The mysterious rites of 
ancient Druidism in England were largely prompted by 
animistic ideas, and belief in witchcraft survived in proud 
New England until the last century. Even in this twen- 
tieth century some of their descendants are not free from 
superstition. Shall we wonder that the simple-minded and 
untutored Korean lives under the baleful spell of Animism ? 
Beyond a ceremonial observance of the rites of ancestral 
worship, it is the only religion that really influences him. 

Investigators have classified Korean spirits under no 
less than thirty-five main divisions, including spirits of 
heaven, of stars, of earth, of mountains and hills, and of the 
district; spirits of the house site, of the house itself, of the 



ilELIGlOUS BELIEFS OF THE KOREANS 87 

ridge-pole, of goods and furniture, and of the kitchen; 
spirits that dwell in trees, in caverns, in streams, and that 
roam through houses and about the country, making trouble 
wherever they go; spirits that serve one's ancestors, that 
aid jugglers and exorcists, that take possession of young 
girls, and that bring death to women in childbirth; spirits 
that make men brave and that make them cowardly; 
spirits that convey smallpox, cholera, and a long list of 
other diseases; spirits that cause one to die young, to die 
away from home, to die as substitute for another, to die 
by strangulation, by di'owning, by suicide, by a fall, and 
by being beaten. Each main subdivision is divided and 
subdivided and subdivided again, imtil count is lost 
among the legions and legions of spirits. 

Korean religious rites are pathetic efforts to propitiate 
or outwit these imiumerable demons. All sorts of expedi- 
ents are adopted by the terrified people. High posts, sur- 
mounted by grotesquely carved heads with painted lips, 
cheeks, and eyebrows, guard the approaches to a \dllage. 
Near the house a stake is driven into the ground, the ex- 
posed part wrapped with straw and tipped with a bit of 
white paper, on which words of alleged mystical power 
have been inscribed. This stake propitiates the god of the 
site, and sacrifices and offerings are made to keep him in 
good humor. The ridge-poles of houses, pubKc buildings, 
and city gates are adorned with odd, misshapen figures 
which are believed to be a protection to the occupants and 
the city. Hilltops have shi'ines, small and usually dilapi- 
dated buildings, containing images or paper pictures of 
mythical beings. Pain means that a demon has gotten 
into the body, and the method of treatment is an attempt 
to kill it. A eunuch swings a bumiag torch to insure 
abundant harvests. A cracked nut held in the mouth and 
then spat out is supposed to prevent boils and sores. When 
a child is bom, a candle is lighted; if it does not go out un- 
til it is consumed, the child will have a long life; but if 
the flame dies out or is blown out before the candle bums 
down to its socket, early death must be anticipated. The 



88 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

traveller will sometimes find across the path a log with 
several holes in it, one of which has been carefully plugged. 
This means that a sorceress has succeeded in corking up 
a demon which had been causing sickness. The muleteers 
will step carefully over such a log. 

Many a time as we travelled through the interior our 
path wound around a tree about whose trunk were piles 
of stones and from whose branches bits of colored rags 
fluttered. The superstitious people imagined that an evil 
spirit inhabited such a tree. The spirit was believed to 
be curious as well as malignant, and in order to divert his 
attention the wayfarer w^ould toss a stone about the base 
of the tree or tear a strip from his garment and fasten it 
to a limb, and while the curious demon was examining the 
stone or rag, the frightened Korean would dodge past. 

At the Korean New Year superstition runs riot. Hair 
that has been cut off or combed out during the year is 
burned in an earthen vessel to prevent demons from enter- 
ing the house during the following year. Troubles are 
metaphorically placed in straw dolls and tossed into the 
street in the beHef that whoever picks them up will take 
the troubles away from the original owner. It is not un- 
common to see a frightened mother vigorously spanking a 
child who has innocently picked up one of these dolls. 
Bits of colored paper are placed in split sticks on the tops 
of the houses, and the moon is besought to take them away, 
or a statement of some adversity and a painted image are 
put on paper and burned. Multitudes of both sexes and 
all ages cross a bridge shortly after dark once for each year 
of their lives in the conviction that this will prevent pains 
in the feet and legs throughout the new year. 

The formidable personages in all this religious life, if 
indeed it may be called a religious life, are not the priests 
but the shamans, or sorcerers. They are of two kinds, 
the mu-tang and the pan-su. The latter are blind, and 
popular imagination invests them with extraordinary gifts. 
Some sorcerers are men, but most of them are women. 
They are supposed to have a supernatural call to their pro- 



RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF THE KOREANS 89 

fession, and to have magical power over demons. They 
are held in such mingled reverence and fear that no one 
thinks of associating familiarly with them, the people re- 
garding them with something of the terror with which they 
regard the demons whom the sorcerers are believed to ex- 
orcise. And yet the Koreans feel that they cannot get 
along without them. They consult them on all sorts of 
occasions, and before beginning any kind of an enterprise, 
in order to make sure that the demons will not interfere. 
On the advice of mu-tangs, demon festivals are arranged 
to keep the demons in good humor. The mu-tangs are 
summoned in illness that they may banish the demon that 
is causing the pain or fever. 

The medicine employed by the mu-tang or sorcerer cer- 
tainly ought to accomplish something. The remedy fre- 
quently employed for smallpox is a stew of meat cut from 
the body of a yellow dog, the eyebrows of a tiger, and dried 
beetles of several species, it being important that the 
beetles were caught on a dewy summer morning. Witches 
are exorcised by a broth made from snakes, Hzards, toads, 
and powdered tiger's teeth. This interesting decoction is 
also deemed a specific for fevers, and a large bowlful is ad- 
ministered at a single dose. A medical missionary writes: 
"The horns of a deer when only about six inches long and 
filled with blood are highly esteemed. Dried and pow- 
dered, they are prescribed to restore agility to the aged. 
I priced some of these horns at a Korean drug-store, and 
the dealer asked from fifty to a hundred dollars a pair. 
In desperate cases, a mixture of snakes, toads, and centi- 
pedes is carefully boiled together and warranted to kill or 
cure. Gall is another favorite remedy — beef's gall for 
digestion, bear's gall for the liver, crow's gall for debility. 
In the last case there are certain conditions attendant upon 
its use. Mr. Kim Tuck Yomgi, my language-teacher, ex- 
citedly aroused me one morning before daybreak while at 
a mountain monastery where we were studying. 'Please 
come quickly and kill it,' he shouted. I grasped my shot- 
gun and rushed out to behold him pointing at an ordinary 



90 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

black crow seated in a tree. 'What's the matter? What 
do you want me to kill?' 'That crow/ said he. 'Quick, 
before the sun gets up!' Astonishment deprived me of 
action and the crow flew away. Whereupon Mr. Kim 
sadly explained that a crow must be killed before daybreak 
or its gall would have no medical virtue." 

The spirit of smallpox requires special handling. The 
mu-tang solemnly advises that its arrival be obser\^ed by 
a cessation of labor on the part of the family and its neigh- 
bors, and the offering of a ceremonial feast. He then 
directs that the patient be respectfully worshipped several 
times a day as the abode of the dread spirit. If the disease 
abates, the departure of the spirit is celebrated by another 
feast; a prominent feature of which is a small wooden 
horse which is heavily loaded with supplies for the journey 
of the departing demon. Sometimes a mother will make 
a straw horse and place it by the door in order that a lag- 
gard demon may take the hint and have a convenient 
means of getting away. If death occurs, a swarm of evil 
spirits attend the funeral, looking for a chance to whisk 
away the dead. If the family is able to afford the expense 
of two or more coffins, they are provided and buried in 
different places, the utmost care being observed to prevent 
the demons finding out which coffin contains the body. 

More deadly than ''medicines'' is the chim, the surgical 
instrument commonly used. There are two kinds, one a 
small knife and the other a large and rudely made iron 
needle. The former is seldom used, the latter is universal. 
The sorcerer thi-usts it into the body to let out or kill the 
demon, which is believed to cause the pain. As the chim 
is usually rusty, and is never properly cleaned after using, 
it makes an infected punctured wound which not infre- 
quently develops into an ugly sore. I saw many pitiful 
illustrations of the disastrous consequences as I attended 
the clinics in mission hospitals, and every medical mission- 
ary could tell a heart-rending story of the sufferings, not 
only of men and women, but of little children, w^hose bodies 
have been infected in this way. 



RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF THE KOREANS 91 

The whole life of the Korean is grievously influenced by 
these superstitions, and by the cunning and often hysterical 
sorcerers. They are to be found in hovel and palace aHke. 
Officers of exalted rank as well as poverty-stricken peasants 
call in blind sorcerers to perform magical ceremonies over a 
sick member of the family, or to select a lucky day for the 
marriage of a son or daughter. As our party entered one 
village, we heard the sound of native drums and the clangor 
of brass cymbals. On going to the house we saw a hideous 
old sorceress dancing in the midst of nervous relatives, 
alternately mumbling and shrieking incantations, while 
attendants made racket enough to make a well person ill, 
to say nothing of the poor sufferers whose disease was being 
treated. The fees which these sorcerers receive are often 
large, and in the aggregate they reach enormous propor- 
tions. Within recent years the more intelligent officials in 
the cities have tried to hold the worst of these sorcerers in 
check, and the police have sometimes arrested them; but 
superstitions die hard, "This is a dreadful state of affairs," 
a Korean in Seoul was overheard saying to a friend. "My 
brother is very sick, and although I have tried to get a 
mu-tang, no one will come for fear of being arrested and 
punished; so I suppose there is nothing for it but to let the 
poor fellow die." 

No right-minded person will ridicule such superstition. 
Rather will he be deeply moved by its pathos, and often 
by its tragedy. After an epidemic of cholera in Seoul, 
Mrs. Underwood wrote: "Koreans call the cholera ^the 
rat disease/ believing that cramps are rats gnawing and 
crawling inside the legs, going up till the heart is reached; 
so that they offer prayers to the spirit of the cat, hang a 
paper cat on the house-door and rub their cramps with a 
cat^s skin. They offered prayers and sacrifices in various 
high places to the heavens, and some of the streets in in- 
fected districts were almost impassable on account of ropes 
stretched across, about five feet high, at intervals of about 
every twenty-five feet, to which paper prayers were attached. 
As my coolies, trjdng to pass along with my chair, broke 



92 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

one of these, I could not help admonishing the owner who 
caine to its rescue: 'Better put them up a little higher/ 
Ay, put them up higher, poor Korean brother, they are 
far too near the earth ! One of the most pathetic sights 
in connection with this plague were these poor, wind-torn, 
bedraggled paper prayers, hanging helplessly everywhere, 
the offering of blind superstition to useless dumb gods who 
can neither pity nor hear.'^^ They 

" — stretch lame hands of faith, and grope. 
And gather dust and chaff." 

^Fifteen Years Among the Top-Knots, pp. 139-140. 



CHAPTER VI 
A RAMBLE IN THE INTERIOR 

Korea is changing rapidly under the new conditions of 
recent years, and railways now make travelling as easy 
as it is unromantic. I shall always be glad that I enjoyed 
a rambHng journey through some of the provinces in the 
quaint old style of former days. It was during my first 
visit in the beautiful spring weeks of 1901. My party con- 
sisted of my wife and two experienced missionaries, 0. R. 
Avison, M.D., and the Reverend C. E. Sharp, who proved 
to be not only indispensable guides and interpreters but 
delightfully congenial companions. 

Before starting from Seoul we obtained a travelling pass- 
port called the kwan-ja, which called on all magistrates 
to whom it might be presented to furnish whatever we re- 
quired in the way of food, lodging, money, animals, and 
carriers. We did not use it, however. Local magistrates 
do not take kindly to such passports. Some travellers had 
abused their privileges under them, and when magistrates 
had found it impracticable to comply with their peremp- 
tory demands, the travellers had become insolent and threat- 
ening. A magistrate, even though weak and corrupt, is a 
human being with some rights, and he cannot always place 
himseK at the disposal of a wandering foreigner. In the 
rice-planting or hai'vesting season, when every able-bodied 
man is toiling in the fields, it is intolerable to have a white 
man come along and present a government order for car- 
riers. The magistrates had learned, too, that money ad- 
vanced to travellers on a kwan-ja was not always repaid. 
The traveller might honestly pay the amount on his return 
to Seoul, but the official who received it might pocket it. 
The unhappy magistrate did not dare to make remon- 

93 



94 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

strance, and he knew that if he did he would get no redress. 
The sensible, kindly traveller who makes reasonable re- 
quests, pays fair prices and deals through an honest inter- 
preter, will have little difficulty in procuring anything he 
really needs that the people can supply. 

Proceeding by rail to Chemulpo, we there took a tiny 
twenty-five ton steamer, which bore us over smooth waters 
among the many islands dotting this lovely coast to Hai 
Ju. We passed dozens of lazily moving junks crowded 
with Koreans who were contentedly chatting and smoking. 
A Korean junk is not a graceful object. It is clumsily con- 
structed of heavy, irregularly sawed planks, and is so poorly 
put together that it appears like tempting Providence to 
trust oneself to such a craft. The sails are wretchedly 
made of coarse matting. A junk does fairly well working 
up a river when time is no object, as it seldom is to Koreans, 
and it will behave with tolerable decency on the open sea 
when it is running before the wind. But the foreigner 
who confides himself to a Korean junk when his route does 
not lie in the direction of the wind, and when the sea is 
heavy, should be well equipped with life preservers and 
accident insurance policies, although accidents are really 
less common than one would imagine from the dilapidated 
appearance of these crazy boats. I saw jmiks that ap- 
peared to be so old and rotten that they were about to 
fall to pieces, but which somehow managed to wabble 
along without sinking. 

The trip from Chemulpo was supposed to occupy twelve 
houi's, but as we sat on the upper deck in the early evening, 
enjoying the soft glories of sunset on land and sea, and the 
still softer beauties of the full moonlight which ere long 
flooded the scene, we learned that we could not reach our 
destination till midnight. As Hai Ju, where we intended 
to spend the night, was three and a half miles from the 
landing-place, we decided to remain on board till morning. 
The tiny cabin was filled with Koreans eating rice and 
drinking sake; but they left after a w^hile, and we stacked 
the table and chairs across the middle of the room, Doctor 



A RAMBLE IN THE INTERIOR 95 

Avison and Mr. Sharp taking one of the improvised com- 
partments and Mrs. Brown and I the other, a sharp bump 
on the head emphasizing the fact that the ceiling was only 
five feet from the floor. The cabin was only wide enough 
for three, and a Japanese policeman was already asleep on 
our side. But we rolled ourselves up in our rugs and lay 
down on the floor. Though the accommodations were 
somewhat inferior to those on an Atlantic liner, we slept 
soundly till half-past five the next morning, when we were 
roused by a boy standing beside our open window and 
bawling to some one on shore. As we were already dressed, 
we were soon on deck. 

What a glorious morning it was ! The air was deliciously 
cool and bracing. The water flashed in the bright sunlight 
and the shore view was superb — a green valley, a fine hill 
beyond it and in the farther background noble mountains. 
After a hurried breakfast from our stores, we went ashore 
in the inevitable sampan, and after the necessar}^ dickering 
for bullocks to carry our luggage, started for Hai Ju. That 
three-and-a-half-mile walk I shall never forget. The scenery 
was beautiful beyond description. Up and down high hills 
we went, the views commanding wide sweeps of ocean and 
bay, of carefully tilled fields, blossoming fruit-trees, and 
thatched farmhouses, which, in such environment, looked 
far more attractive than they really were. Just before 
reaching the city, we topped a crest from which we looked 
upon the lovely valley in which lies the walled city of Hai 
Ju, a considerable place of about 10,000 inhabitants. The 
houses were the typical low, thatched-roofed huts of the 
Koreans, but the wall appeared massive and its gates rose 
impressively above it. 

There were at that time no resident white men in Hai 
Ju, and the arrival of our party was therefore quite an 
event. The people pressed about us in great crowds. 
They knew Doctor Avison as the wonderful foreign doctor 
from Seoul, and they came to him with all their sick and 
injured. Many of the cases were pathetic in the extreme. 
Doctor Avison handled each one with sympathy as well as 



96 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

with skill; and he spoke to each one about the Good Physi- 
cian in whose name he had come. 

In the evening I was called upon to address the people 
through an interpreter. I sympathized with the late Doctor 
Maltbie D. Babcock, who said that an interpreter is an 
''interrupter/' and that the result is "sl compound dis- 
location of ideas with mortification immediately setting in/' 
I had never realized before how much of the effect of public 
speech is dependent upon a continuous flow of language 
and gradually increasing momentum. If the Koreans did 
not understand, or if they deemed the address uninteresting, 
they were too uncivilized to be rude or restless, for they 
sat quietly and listened intently and with the utmost 
courtesy. It was a striking scene from the porch of the 
little building, with the people sitting and standing all 
about and the flickering flame of a chimneyless kerosene- 
lamp lighting the up-turned faces. 

The problem of conveyance was a serious one, for at 
that time the Japanese had not constructed the roads 
which may now be found, and we had to follow mere paths, 
often worn into deep ruts by the passage of many feet and 
hoofs. In wet weather these ruts were full of sticky mud, 
and in dry weather they were usually haK filled with a 
powdery dust that was very trying. Bridges were few and 
w^ere ordinarily of poles covered with dirt. The chances 
were about even that our pony's or bullock's foot would 
sink through the dirt, and that the supporting poles were 
half rotten. After I had crashed through one of these pre- 
carious bridges and had sprawled down in a heap amid a 
shower of earth, stones, broken timbers, and the heels of 
the pony I was riding, I made it a rule to avoid bridges, 
unless certain of their strength, and to ford the brooks and 
gullies. 

The chair is the most comfortable conveyance on a 
country trip in Korea, and we had brought two with us. 
Each chair is suspended between two long poles and is car- 
ried on such long tours by four men, although two are 
sometimes used for short rides on the level streets of cities. 



A RAMBLE IN THE INTERIOR 97 

The chair coolies received three hundred and seventy-five 
cash (about six cents) for every ten H (three and a third 
miles), and bought their own food, unless our stay at any 
particular place was prolonged. 

We had two chairs, and our plan was to hire two ponies, 
using oxen to transport our luggage and supplies. On ar- 
riving at Hai Ju the negotiations were begun. The owners 
demanded seven hundred cash (about ten cents) for every 
ten li for each ox, six himdred cash for each pony, and in 
addition rice for two meals a day for the animals and their 
drivers, for in Korea a man goes with each animal. The 
price appeared very low to an American, but for Korea it 
was exorbitant and my companions did their utmost to 
secure a reduction. But the Oriental loves to dicker. He 
was not in a huriy and he knew that we were. Moreover^ 
at that season he needed his oxen for work in the fields. 
Late at night a bargain was concluded for two ponies and 
four oxen at about the terms imposed. That settled, we 
went to sleep, and early the next morning we were astir 
for a seven-o'clock start. But we were again reminded 
that we were in Asia by the appearance of only one pony 
and two oxen. The men solemnly declared that there was 
not another animal in town, although the night before 
they had assured us that they had all we wanted. We 
could not spend another day haggling, so we extemporized 
another chair, hired men to carry it, piled the most neces- 
sary supplies on the two oxen and started, leaving Doctor 
Avison's medicine-boy and Mr. Sharp's helper to find other 
oxen and follow when they could. They were successful 
and joined us later in the day. 

Although we were only four foreigners and travelled as 
lightly as possible, yet our cavalcade was considerable. 
We had four bullocks, one pony, and three chairs. As each 
bullock and the pony had a separate man and each chair 
had four bearers, and we had a Korean cook, the Christian 
helper for this field, and Doctor Avison's hospital assistant, 
we made up a party of twenty-four persons and five animals. 

The Korean pony is not an attractii^e beast either in size 



98 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

or disposition. There were no foreign saddles, and it was 
customary to pile one^s bedding on top of the little animal 
and then to climb on top and let the feet dangle about the 
pony^s neck. It is not a comfortable position, and as it is 
impossible to hold on to anything, and as the t3^ical pony 
is restless and vicious, the possibilities of disaster are 
numerous. The ponies that are available for this purpose 
are nearly all stallions, and, though they are not large, 
they are tough and have remarkable powers of endurance. 
Their savagery is a proverb. The}^ are willing to fight 
eveiything and everybody at all times and places. No 
matter how heavily they may be loaded or how tired they 
are supposed to be after a day's journey, they will attack 
one another with the furious glee of an Irishman at a Donny- 
brook Fair. Even after the most toilsome journey, it is 
ordinarily necessary to chain them to their troughs while 
they are feeding, while at night they are fastened by ropes 
hung from the rafters of the inn and passing under them 
in such'^a way that they are partially suspended. Whether 
this is simply a custom, or to keep them from fighting, or 
to prevent them from lying down it would be difficult to 
say, though probably all three reasons enter, for Koreans 
have an idea that a pony must never be allowed to lie 
down. They also insist that he must not be permitted to 
drink water when it can possibly be avoided, his food con- 
sisting of chopped millet-stalks, rice-husks, bran, and beans, 
all boiled together and served hot as a thin gruel. While 
the Korean pony is not to be made a friend of, he may be 
impHcitly trusted in the most uncertain places. He will 
work like a Trojan and keep his footing on the edge of 
precipices which make the foreigner shiver. Mine proved 
perfectly reliable in these respects, save, of course, when a 
bridge gave way under him, and then his rage soothed me, 
for he gave expression to our common feelings. 

The days of that interior trip were revelations that con- 
vinced us how much is missed by the traveller who visits 
only the cities. All the way the scenery was alternately 
beautiful and sublime. The valleys were cultivated fields 



A RAMBLE IN THE INTEIUOR 99 

dotted mth farmhouses, adorned with blossoming fruit- 
trees, and surrounded by noble hills. From a crest over 
which our path wound, we commanded on one side a wide 
panorama of ocean and inlets, green islands, and bold prom- 
ontories, and on the other side hills and dales and meadows 
and majestic ranges piled high against the blue sky. 

We passed many quaint little villages nestling in the 
nooks of the hills. Here, as in China, it is customar}^ for 
farmers to segregate themselves into hamlets, going to their 
fields each morning and returning in the evening. This is 
not so exclusive^ the rule as in China so that here and 
there we saw an isolated farmhouse, but such houses were 
not common. 

We stopped for tiffin at the village of Kerumajai, the 
whole population curiously watching us as we ate. Mrs. 
Brown, as usual, was the cynosure of all eyes. The people 
had occasionally seen a foreign man, but a white woman 
was rare and aroused as much excitement as a circus in 
a Western American town. The Korean women thronged 
about her, feeling of her shoes and dress, trying on her hat, 
asking her to undo her hair, endeavoring to take off her 
wedding-ring, and rubbing her cheek to see whether her 
white complexion would come off, all the while excitedly 
jabbering and laughing at so strange an object as an Ameri- 
can woman. But they were always good-natured, and 
Mrs. Brown took their attentions with like good nature, 
though there must have been times when such personal 
hberties were rather irksome. Privacy was impossible, 
and she was obhged not only to eat but to retire at night 
and dress in the morning with the inquisitive eyes of Ko- 
rean women at every chink. If there was none, the oiled 
paper on the windows was broken and the space quickly 
filled with the tousled heads of the curious. This, of course, 
was the experience of every woman missionaiy who went 
among the villages. After days and nights of such experi- 
ences, it was a relief to enter a missionary home or a village 
where the Christians were numerous enough to secure pri- 
vacy for the visitor. 



100 TPIE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Evening found us at a typical inn in the village of Tanai. 
It was a low building of poles, with mud walls and thatched 
roof and enclosing a square courtyard crowded with dogs, 
people, and the effects of the native travellers who had 
already arrived. One side was occupied by feeding cattle. 
Another was devoted to large earthenware pots, in which 
rice was being cooked. The remaining sides were small 
rooms with paper-covered openings for windows, and earth 
floors, beneath which ran the flues from the kitchen-fires. 
There being no chairs, we squatted, Korean fashion, on 
some matting, which slowly became so warm that we felt 
as if we were sitting on a stove. We had travelled faster 
than our bullocks so that we had no supplies, but w^e suc- 
ceeded in buying some food from the natives and we watched 
our cook prepare it over a few sticks of charcoal in a pot 
of ashes. A good supper it was, too, and we ate it before 
a wondering audience of natives, who were not in the least 
embarrassed because their faces and clothing did not ap- 
pear to have been washed for a decade. We enjoyed our 
meal as only hungry travellers can enjoy food, and then, 
spreading our blankets on our cots, we slept so soundly that 
the swarming vermin had an undisturbed repast. In Asia 
it is just as well to submit calmly to the inevitable. 

The next day we journeyed through another beautiful 
region to Kum Dong, where we were welcomed by Kim 
Yun 0, a notable man in the community, and surrounded 
by relatives and dependents Hke an Old Testament patriarch. 
He is a Christian, and so devoted that he had succeeded 
in leading to Christ no less than twenty of his family and 
neighbors. He quickly installed us in a literal prophet's 
chamber, built on the end of his house expressly for the 
comfort of visiting missionaries, and soon he had gathered 
a great company of his neighbors and friends to hear an 
address. 

Our pony man now refused to go farther, and as no other 
pony was to be had, A\dson, Sharp, and I took turns in w^alk- 
ing. We dismissed our four men and piled our impedi- 
menta on a clumsy but strong two-wheeled cart, drawn by 



A RAMBLE IN THE INTERIOR 101 

an ox. But rain turned what was supposed to be a road 
into ruts of mud, and so Saturday noon found us at Sung- 
kokai, miles ahead of our plodding oxen. There were only 
three families in this hamlet, and they evidently had fared 
badly at the hands of some former traveller, for in reply 
to our inquiries they solemnly asserted that they had no 
fowls, no eggs, no anything but rice. While this was being 
cooked, I strolled into ^Hhe suburbs" where I found chickens 
in abundance. Meanwhile Avison prowled around a back 
yard and found some clams (we were only a mile from the 
sea). More foraging by other members of the party de- 
veloped eight eggs and a bowl of wild honey. Sharp pro- 
duced a corruption fund whose hundreds of ^'cash'^ sounded 
big to the natives, although they only meant a few cents to 
us; and soon we were seated cross-legged on an earthen floor, 
feasting on a four-course dinner consisting of rice and clam- 
broth, rice and eggs, rice and chicken, and rice and honey. 
Eight miles farther we saw a group of white figures await- 
ing us on the top of a hill. It was a delegation from Sorai 
to bid us welcome to the village whose remarkable story is 
narrated in a later chapter. We were domiciled in two of 
the classrooms of the church. It is a notable building for 
Korea, and almost imposing in comparison with the hum- 
ble homes about it, standing on an eminence commanding 
a wide view, and on the edge of a grove which was once 
the centre of pagan worship. It was dedicated in June, 
1896, and was the first church in Korea built wholly by 
Koreans. One of the elders, Suk (or Sau) Kjomg Jo, had 
gone to Seoul on purpose to escort us to Sorai, but through 
a misunderstanding as to the time of our departure, he ar- 
rived there after we had started. Disappointed but not 
dismayed, he took the next train to Chemulpo, travelled a 
day and a night in a small sampan over the route we had 
come by steamer, and then, without stopping to rest, he 
had walked thirty-five miles till he overtook us, footsore 
and weary, but happy in finding us. When I recalled the 
roughness of the road and observed that he had passed 
middle hfe, I marvelled again. 



102 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

All unmarked mound back of the church reminds one of 
the tragedy of Sorai. Years before, some devoted Canadian 
Christians had conceived the idea of an independent mission 
work in which a soHtar}^ missionary should Hve "as the 
natives do." Three men thus Hved in a small native house 
ill Sorai at various times. The experiment proved to be a 
disastrous failure. Two of the men soon saw the futility 
of the method and left for other work. The third, Mr. 
W. J. Mackenzie, had a sorrowful experience. He was a 
consecrated, indefatigable missionary, and so persuasively 
commanding that he not only prevented a robber-band 
from attacking Sorai but actually converted the chieftain. 
In the delirium of a high fever he shot himself in June, 
1895. The poor people mourned as for a brother and 
buried him among their own dead. The grave has no 
mark. Every Korean for miles around know^s it and it 
no more needs a sign than the mountain which silently 
looks down upon it. 

After a Sunday in Sorai with three services, each attended 
by the whole village, we journeyed Monday morning over 
an undulating grassy prairie to a narrow valley which led 
us deeply into the famous Pul Tai San or Great Mountains 
of Buddha. Soon we had to dismount and begin a steep 
climb over the Tai K^amg Kol Pass, which means "the 
Valley of Great Sights." It is a fitting name. Seldom 
have I seen nobler scenery. Mighty must have been the 
elemental forces which once convulsed this region, up- 
heaving those stupendous masses of rock to dizzy heights, 
the strata often standing perpendicularly in mute witness 
to the omnipotence of the power which had hurled them 
upward. And yet amid all this sublimity w^e found a flora 
so abundant that in a few hours Mrs. Brown collected speci- 
mens of no less than sixty varieties of flowers, many of them 
deHcately beautiful, though only two were fragrant. On 
the summit of the pass we had a view which brought to 
mind the reverent lines of Wordsworth: 

" Were there below a spot of holy ground, 
Where from distress a refuge might be found. 



A Rx\MBLE IN THE INTERIOR 103 

And solitude prepare the soul for heaven; 
Sure Nature's God to man that spot had given 
Where falls the purple morning far and wide 
In flakes of light upon the mountainside; 
Where with loud voice the power of water shakes 
The leafy wood, or sleeps in quiet lakes." 

Emerging from the momitains into a broad, cultivated 
valley, we stopped for a late tiffin at Wu Dong. We did 
not need to be told that there were Christians here, for as 
usual we had been met several miles out by smiling people, 
and as we drew near, we saw the tall pole with its fluttermg 
flag — the happy custom of the Korean churches, so that 
every one knows where the "Jesus Church'^ is. Seated on 
the floor, native fashion, we enjoyed the rice, eggs, and 
chicken which the hospitable villagers provided, and for 
which they refused to accept any compensation. Then we 
held a short service, the audience filling the little church 
and every outside space within hearing. 

Evening found us at the walled town of Chang Yun. A 
Christian family kindly welcomed us, and soon our arrival 
was known among the 2,000 people of the place. Presently 
the curious crowd silently parted and a boy of about twelve 
years of age hobbled in on one foot and crouched at Doctor 
Avison's feet. The doctor was tired after a hard day's 
travel, but his kind heart could not resist that mute appeal. 
But, alas! the trouble was a dislocated hip of such long stand- 
ing that the limb had grown soHdly in its unnatural posi- 
tion and could only be remedied by surgical treatment so 
heroic as to be quite out of the question with a pocket-case 
of instruments and in a few hours' stay. So he could only 
speak sympathetically to the boy and promise treatment 
if his father could bring him to the mission hospital in 
Seoul. "He has had sores there, hasn't he?" I asked as I 
pointed to the many scars on the deformed hip. "No," 
said the doctor, "those are places where the Korean doc- 
tors have thrust in needles to kill the devil that is supposed 
to cause the pain!" My heart was heavy for the poor 
Httle fellow as he limped away, for he had a good 



104 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

face, pitiful now in its expression of disappointment and 
agony. 

No sooner had he gone than another boy of about the 
same age showed a stiff arm. Rolling up the sleeve, Doctor 
Avison found a dislocated elbow. The accident had hap- 
pened eight months before, and in this case also a new 
adhesion had formed. However the difficulty admitted of 
speedier treatment, and so then and there the boy was 
given an anaesthetic and the useless arm was pulled and 
bent into the proper shape. How bravely and trustfully 
the boy looked into the face of the physician who, he knew, 
was about to hurt him ! But the doctor is a true missionary 
physician. I have seen him take frightened, dirty, vermin- 
infested children in his arms, soothe and pet them into 
quietness, and then tenderly examine and treat some sore 
so hideous as to make one shudder. 

As we were about to eat our supper a middle-aged man 
staggered in. His once white raiment had evidently never 
been pounded by the clubs with which Korean women be- 
labor clothing in washing it, and his skin was caked with 
the accumulations of years of filthy habits. Untying a rag 
about his foot, he exhibited a frightful ulcer. Inquiry de- 
veloped the fact that a blister had once formed on his ankle 
and that by the advice of the native doctor he had smeared 
it with oil and set it on fire in order to burn out the imag- 
inary demon. Dirt, neglect, and flies had aggravated the 
resultant sore until the bones were literally rotting away. 
It was plainly a hospital case, and he was therefore advised 
to go to Seoul after the doctor ^s return. ^^How can I 
travel one hundred and seventy miles to Seoul with no 
money and such a foot?" plaintively queried the sufferer. 
True, but how could the necessary operation be performed 
amid the septic conditions of a Korean hut and with the 
few instruments the doctor had brought along ? Moreover, 
we had to attend a meeting that evening, and to start on 
our journey early the next morning. So the man went 
away sorrowful. But his pitiable state haunted us. Would 
it not be better to risk an operation here with what was at 



A RAMBLE IN THE INTERIOR 105 

hand than to leave the man to rot ? At eleven o'clock that 
night it was so decided. The man was hunted up and told 
that if he would come at four o'clock the next morning, the 
doctor would do what he could for him. He gladly came. 
There are no tables in these native houses and so the pa- 
tient was laid on the floor. The scanty supply of ether 
would keep him unconscious only a few minutes, and in 
such primitive surroundings and with the dim light of a 
cloudy morning struggling through the open door, the 
doctor hastily washed and cut and scraped and cleaned 
the foulest foot I ever saw. Leaving careful directions for 
daily dressing with a young man who had formerly assisted 
him in the Seoul hospital, we wended our way onward, 
hoping that in spite of the rude conditions a man's Hfe had 
been saved. 

These are among the common experiences of a medical 
missionary's life. He has a hospital at his city station, 
but whenever he goes to the country villages the old pitiable 
conditions must be faced. 

That entire trip through the villages of Korea was a 
revelation to us. We journeyed by so circuitous a path, in 
order to see as many of the outstations as possible, that we 
covered about three hundred miles. Everywhere the Chris- 
tians were hospitable and affectionate, and in several places 
the evidences of the Gospel's transforming power were 
wonderful. In Eul Yul, for example, a town of 4,000 in- 
habitants, there were no Christians three years before our 
visit. Then one of its prominent men went to Seoul to 
buy a public office. He met Doctor Underwood, was con- 
verted, put his money into Bibles and tracts instead of a 
bribe for an office, returned and distributed them among 
his fellow townsmen. The}^ responded at once, and we 
found more than a hundred baptized Christians in Eul 
Yul, and a considerable number of catechumens. They 
had built, unaided, a neat little church, donated half the 
cost of the native house set apart for the use of the visiting 
missionary, and were paying all their congregational ex- 
penses. 



lOG THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

As this was the last outstation of the Seoul field; our 
travelling companions, Doctor Avison and Mr. Sharp, left 
us here and we were taken in charge by Mr. Hunt and 
Doctor Wells of Pyengyang, who with equal kindness and 
skill led us through many other villages, each with its own 
story of human interest. Over more hills and through 
more valleys we travelled, crossing an inlet of the sea with 
wide, steep mud banks through which coolies carried us on 
their backs, carefully picking our way across innumerable 
flooded rice-fields where the path wound along the narrow 
slippery tops of the dividing embankments, till we reached 
Whang Ju, where for the first time we struck the main road 
between Seoul and Pyengyang. Near the gate of this 
walled city of 5,000 souls, we passed a sorcerer with two 
assistants beating a drum, clanging cymbals, and shaking 
strings of bells — a hideous din, the object of which was to 
frighten away an evil spirit from a little child who was ill. 

Saturday was cold and windy and we travelled a hun- 
dred H to Pyengyang in a driving rain. The cooHes and 
ponies had a hard time in the sticky, slippery clay. But 
the stormy elements did not prevent four of the missionary 
women from meeting us at Chung Wha, thirteen miles out, 
nor did they deter scores of Korean Christians from tramp- 
ing several miles through the mud and rain to give us 
hearty welcome. Both missionaries and natives brought 
bountiful refreshments with them^ and we had a picnic 
lunch of the most delightful kind in spite of the dripping 
skies and the fighting, squealing ponies in the inn court- 
yard. 

And so after a journey of twelve days, one on train and 
steamer and eleven in chairs, on ponies and afoot, visiting 
many villages and speaking daily to crowds of Koreans, 
we arrived at the historic old city of Pyengyang. 



PART 11 

THE STRUGGLE FOR THE POSSESSION 
OF KOREA 



CHAPTER VII 

THE RIVAL CLAIMS OF CHINA AND JAPAN AND THE 
CHINA-JAPAN WAR 

Chinese ascendancy in Korea dates from an early period. 
We have already seen that the history of Korea begins 
with an immigration from China, and that Kija, who is 
supposed to have been the first ruler of the country, was 
a Chinese. Korea received from China two of her religions, 
Buddhism and Confucianism, her written language, her 
literature and philosophy, her dress, and many of her 
customs. Trade, too, was largely with China. Thrifty 
Chinese shopkeepers settled in various parts of the coim- 
tiy. They formed a considerable colony in Seoul and 
speedily gained control of the business of the capital. The 
Chinese Government asserted and the Korean Government 
conceded poHtical superiority. Embassies from Korea 
regularly visited Peking to pay tribute. The amount 
gradually diminished, but the forms were scrupulously 
observed. After the Manchu occupation of China each 
Korean King, on ascending the throne, paid humble re- 
spects to the Emperor of China and received his patent 
of royalty from him. This investiture and the annual 
visit to Peking of a Korean embassy bearing gifts and 
protestations of allegiance came to be established customs. 
Imperial Chinese commissioners on arriving at Seoul were 
received by the King outside of the capital with all the 
honors due to envoys suzerain. A stately arch long marked 
the spot where this ceremony took place. The Japanese 
treaty of 1876 stipulated that '^Chosen, being an inde- 
pendent State, enjoys the same sovereign rights as does 
Japan." But as late as 1890 the King, in acknowledging 
the thoughtfulness of the Emperor of China in lessening 
the expenses of an embassy of condolence after the death 

109 



110 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

of the Queen Dowager, wTote: ^'Our country is a small 
Kingdom and a vassal State of China, to which the Emperor 
has shown his graciousness from time immemorial. . . . 
The Emperor's consideration for his vassal State, as evinced 
by his thoughtfulness in matters pertaining to the Mission, 
is fathomless. How admirable and satisfactory ! And how 
glorious!" 

The question seesawed back and forth, China claiming 
suzerainty whenever she deemed it to her advantage to 
do so, and Korea conceding it whenever she was obliged 
to. While imperious in her demands in ordinary times, 
China was quick to disclaim responsibility when it was 
likely to mean trouble for herself. After the massacre of 
French missionaries, in 1866, China was not at all disposed 
to face the angry French Government or to pay a heavy 
indemnity, and when the French Charge d'AfTaires pressed 
the matter at Peking, the Tsung-li Yamen virtuously pro- 
tested that Korea was an independent state for which 
China had no responsibility. When, in 1871, Admiral 
Rodgers, of the American navy, claimed satisfaction for the 
looting of the schooner General Sherman and the murder of 
its crew, in 1866, the Chinese Government took the same 
position. And in 1876, when the Japanese were about to 
send an expedition to Korea to insist upon their demands, 
the Chinese reiterated their waiver of responsibility. 

It was a costly mistake, for when China wished to re- 
assert her claims, it was easy for objectors to quote her 
own admissions that the country was independent. In 
1882 China insisted that the words, '^ Korea has always 
been tributary to China, and this is admitted by the Presi- 
dent of the United States," should be inserted in the first 
part of the treaty between Korea and America. The 
American Government eliminated the clause, and China 
vainly tried to have the same provision inserted in the 
treaty with Great Britain in 1883. China did not readily 
yield, and even after the Korean envoy had reached 
Washington, the Chinese minister told him that he must 
not make any representations to the American Government 



RIVAL CLAIMS OF CfflNA AND JAPAN 111 

without prior consultation with the Chinese legation. 
The President of the United States, however, took the posi- 
tion that the American Government was dealing with 
Korea as an independent state, and that the Korean Min- 
ister could be received only on that supposition. 

In spite of this loss of diplomatic ground, the Chinese 
Resident in Seoul was for a time the virtual ruler of the 
comitry, at least so far as foreign relations were concerned. 
From 1884 to 1893 the Resident was the famous Yuan Shih 
Kai, who afterward became President of the Chinese Re- 
pubHc, a man of extraordinary ability and force of character, 
as all the world afterward learned. He was only twenty- 
six years of age when he arrived in Korea, and he had not 
then acquired, or he deemed it unnecessary to exercise, the 
tact in deahng with men that he showed in later life, al- 
though he never was lacking in decision and ruthless energy 
when he beHeved them to be required to gain his ends. 
At any rate, his policy in Seoul was that of "the big stick." 
He maintained an estabHshment of royal magnificence, de- 
manded precedence over all the diplomatic corps, insisted 
on his right to sit when received in audience by the King, 
and conducted himself with such general arrogance that, 
while he completely cowed the helpless Korean Govern- 
ment, he so strengthened suspicion and dislike among Ko- 
reans and Japanese that he materially hastened the out- 
break of war between China and Japan. 

For the Chinese claims to Korea were disputed at every 
point by the Japanese. They, too, could point to numer- 
ous historical precedents. As far back as 202 A. D., the 
Empress Regent Jingu of Japan had led an expedition to 
Korea and received the submission of the Korean court. 
For eleven hundred years after that, the Japanese claimed, 
and the Koreans with varying degrees of reluctance ad- 
mitted, allegiance to Japan. Korean embassies bearing 
tribute sailed regularly from Fusan to the court of the 
Shogun. After Ni Taijo gained the throne of Korea, in 
1392, the tribute embassies to Japan became less numerous 
and the presents less costly until in 1460 they ceased alto- 



112 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

gether. The Japanese resented the growing inclmation of 
the Koreans to acknowledge the overlordship of China 
rather than that of Japan. Internal troubles postponed 
active interference, but the day of reckoning came with 
the accession to power of the ambitious and martial-spirited 
Hideyoshi, one of the great figures in Japanese history, who 
was made regent of Japan July 31, 1585. Angered by the 
refusal of the Koreans to pay tribute and to give the Japa- 
nese certain trading privileges, and desiring to strike at 
China through Korea, he sent an army of 130,000 men 
into the peninsula in April, 1592. This army was memora- 
ble not only for its size and elaborate equipment but for 
its fireanns, which the Japanese used for the first time on 
a large scale against a foreign foe. One of its two generals, 
Konishi Yukinaga, was a Roman CathoHc Christian. His 
army swept northward in an unbroken series of victories 
to Pyengyang, while the other general, Kato, moved north- 
east to Gensan. From Pyengyang, Konishi, flushed with 
victory, sent for the Japanese fleet at Fusan to join him. 
But oddly as it sounds in our day, when the Japanese ves- 
sels set forth, they were met and decisively defeated by the 
Korean ships. 

Meantime, the repeated appeals of the Koreans to the 
Chinese court had begun to be heeded and a Chinese army 
marched to the reHef of the Koreans. The first detach- 
ment of 5,000 men was routed at Pyengyang by the Japa- 
nese; but a second force, consisting of 60,000 men, was 
more successful. The Japanese, far from their base of sup- 
pHes, decimated by months of fighting and disease, suffer- 
ing from the cold of an inclement winter, and harassed 
by the now thoroughly aroused Koreans who kept up a 
guerilla warfare, were compelled to retreat. They were 
joined at Seoul by the division of Kato, dismayed by the 
bombs which a Korean named Richosen had invented, and 
which, fired from hooped wooden cannon, exploded with 
destructive effect among the invaders. 

The poor Koreans suffered heavily between the con- 
tending armies of China and Japan. The country was 



EIVAL CLAIMS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 113 

ravaged, the crops were destroyed, and many cities sacked. 
The Japanese, fearing treachery on the part of the Ko- 
reans, burned a large part of Seoul and drove out the 
inhabitants. Multitudes of the defenseless people were 
butchered with such ruthlessness that the memory of that 
fearful slaughter remains to this day. At a great battle 
fought soon afterward, near Seoul, the Chinese and Ko- 
reans were driven back with heavy loss, and after much 
suffering on both sides, peace was concluded May 22, 
1593. The Japanese evacuated Seoul, which was im- 
mediately occupied by the Chinese. By the terms agreed' 
upon, Japan held the three southern provinces, Hideyoshi 
was recognized as King of Korea, and tribute was to be 
sent to Japan. 

The peace was short-lived. Despite the treaty, the Japa- 
nese captured Chin-chiu, an important castle forty miles 
from Fusan. China protested and began to mobilize an- 
other army. A Chinese embassy to Japan in October, 
1596, presented a letter so patronizing in its assumption 
of superiority that Hideyoshi dismissed it in a rage and 
January 7, 1597, despatched a second army of invasion, 
numbering 163,000 men. The Koreans, encouraged by 
their former victory, formed a fleet of two hundred ships 
which were formidable for those days in size, weight, and 
equipment. This time, however, the Japanese were better 
prepared, and in an engagement of only two hours sunk or 
captured one hundred and seventy-four of the Korean 
vessels. They were equally successful on land. The Chi- 
nese had taken possession of the castle at Nan-on, and 
greatly strengthened its fortifications, but the Japanese 
furiously stormed it. The defenders fought desperately 
but unavailingly, and a gruesome heap of 3,726 severed 
heads marked the bloody victory of the assailants. 

September 30, the Japanese advanced into the interior. 
The panic-stricken Koreans abandoned the castle of Teru- 
shiu, and the invaders razed it and marched on toward 
Seoul. October 19 found them at Chin-zen, seventeen 
miles from the capital. Here they hesitated, for while 



Ill THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

they had been whining brilHant victories, their ships had 
met the combined Chinese and Korean fleets and suffered 
disastrous defeat. It is curious, in the hght of present-day 
conditions, to reflect that China and Korea were once more 
powerful on the water than the Japanese. 

Deprived of the suppHes and naval support that they 
had confidently counted on at the port of Seoul, dismayed 
by the report that the Chinese general Keikai had been 
reinforced and was advancing at the head of 100,000 men, 
realizing that winter was approaching, that the country 
was ravaged and desolate, that the whole population was 
against them, that provisions were running short, and that 
their ranks were thiimed by wounds and disease, the Japa- 
nese reluctantly retreated. Sullenly determined to do all 
the damage possible, they looted the houses and castles of 
the Koreans and burned the fine old historic cities of Kion- 
chiu, the ancient capital of Shinra, and Keku-shiu, another 
famous city. November 18, they arrived at Uru-san on the 
seacoast, thirty-five miles from Fusan, where they fever- 
ishly toiled day and night to fortify themselves before the 
Chinese and Korean armies could arrive. January 30, 
1598, the allies, 80,000 strong, furiously attacked the 
23,000 Japanese. In the desperate battle that ensued, 
three-fourths of the Japanese are said to have been killed 
or wounded. The Chinese and Koreans of that day knew 
how to fight, and day after day the terrific stmggle was 
renewed till the defenders were so worn and emaciated that, 
as one chronicle quaintly runs, "their legs were as lean as 
bamboo sticks." Thirst and starvation added to the 
terrors of cold and battle, for the assailants had cut off the 
water and food supply of the garrison. But the undaunted 
Japanese fought stubbornly on till, on February 9, a relieving 
column from Fusan decisively defeated the Chinese at the 
battle of Gisen. The besiegers retreated. Ships laden with 
provisions arrived, and the beleaguered and decimated Japa- 
nese found themselves snatched from the very jaws of de- 
struction. The crippled and famished survivors laid aside 
their bloody armor, ravenously devoured the fresh food, 



RIVAL CLAIMS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 115 

and sent to Kyoto the ears and noses of 13,238 Chinese and 
Koreans as trophies of their victory. September 9 of the 
same year (1598) Hideyoshi died at the age of sixty-three, 
and in accordance with his dying orders the Japanese army 
in Korea sailed for home. 

This ended the war of the second Japanese invasion, a 
war as imnecessary as it was brutal, which cost the Japa- 
nese 50,000 men, and in which the bodies of 185,738 Koreans, 
and 29,014 Chinese, 214,752 in all, were said to have been 
left on the field. Two of the Korean leaders won undying 
fame: Admiral Yi, whose skill and valor were the chief 
factor in the defeat of the Japanese at sea, and General 
Kim Tuk-nyung, who displayed such high military quali- 
ties that his distinguished enemy. General Konishi, ordered 
his portrait painted, and when he received it, ejaculated: 
"This man is indeed a general.'^ 

Japan for a time turned her attention to her own affairs, 
and stricken Korea sorrowfully considered her ruined cities 
and weed-grown fields. The process of reconstruction was 
slow, for fire and sword, famine and pestilence had left 
little. Roots and berries were all that the starving people 
could find to eat, and if it had not been for the ever-bounti- 
ful fisheries the remaining population could hardly have 
survived until the first harvests could be ripened. Korea 
never fully recovered from the disaster. The Hideyoshi in- 
vasions left her a ruined country. Many of the cities were 
rebuilt only in part, and they squalidly. Some were never 
rebuilt at all. Destroyed palaces, Hbraries, and treasures 
of art have not been replaced. Hovels succeeded houses, 
abject poverty followed wealth, and hopeless despair set- 
tled upon the people like a pall. The spirit of the Koreans 
was permanently broken. "The accursed nation'^ the 
Koreans long called the Japanese as they bitterly thought 
of the authors of their fallen estate. 

The failure of the Japanese to gain a permanent foothold 
gave temporar^^ respite to the sorely beset Koreans; but 
in 1623 lyemitsu, under the title of Tycoon, renewed the 
demand for tribute. The Koreans were in no mood to 



116 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

risk another invasion, and the following yea,T an embassy 
loaded with presents proceeded to Japan, where it was re- 
ceived with gorgeous ceremony. For a considerable period 
thereafter a similar embassy journeyed to Japan each year, 
the size of the embassy increasing until it reached 400 
persons. The Japanese enjoyed this annual and pompous 
homage for a while, but after the submission of Korea to 
the Manchu throne, in 1667, the value of the tribute 
dwindled until the embassies went almost empty-handed. 
The Japanese insisted upon their coming as a concession 
to their pride, even though they meant nothing more than 
an exchange of presents; but the expense involved in suita- 
bly entertaining the numerous tribute-bearers gradually 
became a burden, and in 1790 the embassies were ordered 
to stop at the island of Tsushima, where they were enter- 
tained by the local daimios, w^ho received a grant from 
the Tycoon for this puipose. This arrangement was kept 
up as a mere form until 1832, when the embassies were dis- 
continued. 

While the harassed Koreans were thus being reHeved 
from the worst of their troubles with Japan, new trouble 
had developed on their northern frontier. The restless and 
powerful Manchu tribes had taken advantage of the des- 
perate struggle between the Chinese and the Japanese to 
invade Chinese territor}^ . Weakened by the war with Japan, 
the Chinese were ill prepared to resist the belligerent Man- 
chus. The Ming Emperor managed to have the leader of 
the Manchus beheaded; but this, so far from disheartening 
the Manchus, roused them to greater fury, and they ad- 
vanced in vast hordes upon Liao-tung. The frightened 
Chinese demanded an army of 20,000 men from the Ko- 
reans; but in spite of this reinforcement the Manchus de- 
cisively defeated the allied Chinese and Korean armies in 
1619. The Manchu general was not disposed to retaliate on 
the Koreans, for he remembered their services in helping 
to stay the tide of Japanese conquest. But he significantly 
intimated to the Korean King that for the future it would 
be the part of wisdom not to take sides in the struggle be- 



RIVAL CLAIMS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 117 

tween the Chinese and Manchus. The Korean King failed 
to heed the warning and so actively aided the Chinese that 
in 1627 the Manchus angrily turned upon the Koreans. 
Crossing the Yalu, they destroyed cities and ravaged fields 
all the way to Seoul. The King was forced to capitulate 
and to sign a treaty of allegiance to the Manchu overlords. 
As soon, however, as the Manchu army had returned to its 
struggle with the Chinese, the Koreans treacherously vio- 
lated the treaty. They paid dear. The Manchus marched 
back, captured Seoul, and, crossing to the island of Kang-wa, 
where the ladies of the court had taken refuge, they seized 
it also. The humbled King prostrated himself nine times 
before the wrathful Manchu, confessed his crimes, and 
signed a treaty (February, 1637), promising never to have 
anything more to do with the Chinese, and to pay tribute 
to the Manchu court. A memorial stand was erected, and 
the victorious Manchus marched back to China. 

The Ming Emperor, now threatened by a formidable re- 
beUion, made peace with the Manchus, who helped him to 
suppress the rebeUion, and then entered Peking, deposed 
him and placed Chien Chi, the son of their own late King, 
upon the throne of the Middle Kingdom. So great was the 
fear which the Manchurian invaders had inspired among 
the Koreans that a strip of territory on the Yalu River, 
sixty miles wide and three hundred miles long, was left 
uncultivated and depopulated. It failed to be a real bar- 
rier as it speedily became the refuge of outlaws from both 
sides of the line. In 1875, the King of Korea sent a com- 
plaint to the Emperor of China regarding the danger to 
which he was exposed from the lawless characters which 
infested this neutral strip, and whom he could not reach. 
Li Himg Chang thereupon marched into the region at the 
head of a military force. Impressed with the beauty of 
the scenery, the fertiHty of the soil, and the accessibihty 
of the region by the river, he recommended to the Em- 
peror that the strip be added to Chinese terntoTy, and that 
a wall and moat be built along the southern boundary 
for the protection of the Koreans. The King of Korea 



lis THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

thoughtlessly agreed to this arrangement, the result being 
that he lost his claim to an exceedingly valuable region 
without gaining the protection he desired, for the hastily 
constructed wall and moat proved to be of small defensive 
value. By mutual agreement, a Korean caught on the 
Chinese side of the line was to be summarily executed, and 
a Chinese caught on the Korean side was to suffer a like 
fate. Under the more stable conditions of later times, this 
neutral strip rapidly filled up with inhabitants and became 
relatively prosperous, but for a long period it was a menace 
to peace. 

Korea continued to pay tribute regularly to the new Em- 
peror of China. The amount was reduced to one-third 
in 1643, and in 1650 a Korean lady who became a favorite 
at the imperial court in Peking was able to secure a further 
modification so that the tribute became little more than a 
formal recognition of China's suzerainty. StiU, the Chi- 
nese punctiliously insisted upon it, and in 1695 they made 
the King of Korea pay a penalty of ten thousand ounces of 
silver for ignoring a point which they deemed essential to 
their dignity. The accession of a Korean ruler was not 
considered complete imtil two Chinese functionaries had 
solemnly invested him with the crown. Korea profited in 
various ways by this close relationship, especially in the 
domain of learning, for many scholarly and patriotic Chi- 
nese who chafed under the Manchu rule came to Korea, 
bringing with them more advanced learning and civihzation. 

Fusan, however, remained in the possession of the Japa- 
nese, who kept it as a convenient commercial port and, in 
case of further need, a military base. The occupation of 
their southern port by an alien Power was a sore grievance 
to the proud Koreans. However, relations with Japan now 
remained comparatively quiescent for a long period. In 
1866 the frightened King of Korea asked Japan for help in 
dealing with the French Government, which had been ex- 
asperated by the massacre of French Roman Catholic mis- 
sionaries, referred to on a preceding page. Japan, however, 
had no idea of embroiling herself with France, and made no 



RIVAL CLAIMS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 119 

reply. More than two hundred years of comparative free- 
dom from Japanese domination had cast Japan^s earHer 
claims and conquests somewhat into the background when 
the islanders suddenly revived their claims. The overthrow 
of feudalism and the Shogunate, in 1868, and the miifying of 
the nation under the Mikado ended the long internal strug- 
gles of the Japanese, and led them to look again beyond 
their own boundaries with a new sense of power and ambi- 
tion. An embassy was promptly despatched to Korea to 
suggest to the Koreans the expediency of renewing their 
recognition of Japanese suzerainty. The King was then 
a minor, and his father, the Tai-wen-kun, was regent. A 
haughty man at all times, he was just then exalted above 
measure by a victory over the French and his apparently 
successful effort to stamp out the Roman Catholic mis- 
sions. He refused the Japanese demand so curtly that the 
Japanese were furious. A hot-headed party wanted to 
declare war at once; but internal conditions in Japan were 
not yet sufficiently stable to make it prudent to risk a for- 
eign war. The Japanese Government therefore swallowed 
its wrath and waited for a more favorable opportimity to 
take revenge. The effort to induce Korea to resume its 
former relation as a tributaiy state was renewed in 1873, 
and again in 1875, but still in vain. The young King of 
Korea had become of age in the former year and begun to 
reign in his own name. He soon proved himself to be a 
better ruler than the brutal and reactionary Tai-wen-kun, 
but he was not disposed to become a vassal of the Mikado. 
Matters came to a crisis September 19, 1875. A Japa- 
nese vessel, the Unyo Kuan, landed a party of sailors for 
water near Kang-wa. The Koreans fired upon them, per- 
haps beHe^dng them to be French or Americans, with 
whom there had recently been trouble. Whereupon the 
Japanese stormed the fort and made short work of its de- 
fenders. Japan promptly sent a commissioner to Peking 
to ascertain what responsibility the Chinese Government 
was disposed to assume, and January'- 6, 1876, sent an ex- 
pedition of 800 armed men to Korea, in command of Gen- 



120 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

eral Kurocla. The Chinese Government disavowed all re- 
sponsibility, and advised the Korean King to make a treaty 
with the offended Japanese. The treaty, which was signed 
February 27 (1876), opened the ports of Fusan, Chemulpo, 
and Gensan to Japanese trade, provided for a Japanese 
Minister at Seoul, and asserted that " Chosen, being an in- 
dependent state, enjoys the same sovereign rights as Japan." 
This recognition of Korean independence, of course, was 
purely ^^ diplomatic," but it was an advantage to Japan 
since it afforded her an excuse for ignoring the claims of 
China. The meaning of the treaty was significantly illus- 
trated three months later when a Korean embassy sailed 
from Fusan for the court of Japan, the first since the former 
centuiy. It was received with elaborate ceremonies at the 
Mikadoes court, and ere long Japanese influence was again 
in the ascendant. In 1882 Japan strengthened her posi- 
tion by a further convention with Korea, one clause of which 
gave her the right to keep troops in the country for the pro- 
tection of resident Japanese. Japan thereafter continued 
to maintain a garrison in the Korean capital. As China 
also kept a garrison there after the revolution of 1882, the 
rival claimants were face to face in circumstances which 
might at any time develop trouble. The helpless King was 
between two masters, each jealous of the other, and each 
interpreting his independence to mean that his rival must 
keep hands off while he himself was free to push his claims 
to the utmost. 

The situation became more complicated and the relations 
between China and Japan more strained. A clash was 
temporarily averted when Viceroy Li Hung Chang and 
Marquis Ito signed a convention at Tien-tsin, in 1885, in 
which it was agreed that both nations should withdraw 
their troops from Korea, and that if any '^ grave disturbance " 
should occur "of great moment or concern to China or 
Japan, such as might of necessity call for troops from the 
outside for the suppression thereof," either nation sending 
such troops should give due notice in writing to the other. 
This helped matters for a while, but it proved to be a truce 



RIVAL CLAIMS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 121 

rather than a peace. I shall have occasion to refer in a 
later chapter to some of the plots, counter-plots, and acts 
of violence which characterized the next decade. The 
blaze was finally started by the Tong-haks, whose mingling 
of patriotic and lawless elements I have described in a 
former chapter. In the early months of 1894, they became 
so troublesome and formidable that the frightened King 
asked China to help him in suppressing the rebellion, which 
was rapidly developing. China promptly responded, and 
Jime 7 troops were despatched to Korea. The Chinese 
Government notified the Japanese legation in Peking, in a 
memorandum which included the following words: "It is 
in harmony with our constant practice to protect our tribu- 
tary states by sending our troops to assist them, and Gen- 
eral Weh has been ordered to proceed to Zenra ... to 
restore the peace of our tributary state." This was too 
much for the Japanese Government. It sharply replied 
that it did not recognize Korea as a tributary of China, and 
promptly availed itself of its rights under the treaty of 
Tien-tsin to send troops also. The result was that while 
2,000 Chinese troops landed at Asan, 10,000 Japanese 
troops landed at Chemulpo in July, marched to Seoul and 
occupied it. China retaliated by sending more troops and 
a fleet. 

Negotiations followed. Japan proposed that the rival 
Powers co-operate in effecting certain reforms in Korea. 
China objected, insisted that the Koreans should be left 
to work out their own reforms, and demanded that the 
Japanese troops withdraw. The Japanese refused to com- 
ply and July 14 notified the Chinese Government that the 
coming of any more Chinese troops would be regarded as 
an unfriendly act. July 20 the Japanese requested the 
Korean King to order the Chinese troops out of the coxmtry 
on pain of "decisive measures." The ministers of other 
Powers intervened and suggested that the Japanese and 
Chinese troops retire simultaneously. China professed to 
be willing to accede to this, but July 23 the Japanese, learn- 
ing that Chinese reinforcements were on the way by both 



122 THE MASTERY OF TPIE EAR EAST 

sea and land, took possession of the imperial palace, made 
the King a virtual prisoner, and placed the government 
under the control of the Tai-wen-kun, the King's father. 
The Japanese Government denied that it had received from 
China the notice that the convention of Tien-tsin called for 
before either government was to send additional troops to 
Korea. Li Hung Chang, by whose advice they were sent, 
afterward claimed that the government at Peking had as- 
sured him that due notice had been sent, and that he learned 
later that he had been deceived. However this may have 
been, July 25 two Japanese cruisers met three Chinese war- 
ships convoying a transport with 1,200 soldiers bound for 
Korea. The Chinese rashly opened fire; but in the en- 
gagement that followed the Japanese destroyed one of the 
Chinese ships, disabled the second, captured the third, and 
sent the transport and its soldiers to the bottom. Three 
days later, July 28, the Japanese general in Seoul requested 
the Chinese conmiander at Asan to withdraw his men from 
Korea; and, on receiving a defiant reply, attacked in such 
force that the Chinese were utterly routed and fled pell-mell 
toward Pyengyang. July 30, the Korean Government, un- 
der the complaisant Tai-wen-kun, abrogated the conven- 
tions with China, and on the fet day of August, 1894, war 
was formally declared. 

The contestants appeared to be grotesquely unmatched. 
The Chinese were overwhelmingly superior in numbers. 
The Western world was amazed at the supposed temerity 
of small Japan in attackiag mighty China. It seemed like 
a terrier attacking a mastiff, and they expected to see the 
big dog crush the Uttle one with a single bite of his massive 
jaws. But the little fighter proved to be all bone and 
sinew, and pluck and skill, and the large one to be as flabby 
as a jelly-fish, and as helpless as a prize pig. The Chinese 
were pathetically ignorant of the methods of modern war, 
and unprepared for effective war of any kind. The Peking 
government was in the hands of selfish and corrupt officials 
who knew Httle and cared less about the outfitting of an 
army and the proper planning of a campaign. They de- 



RIVAL CLAIMS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 123 

spised the Japanese as an insignificant and inferior bar- 
barian nation, underrated their strength, and were intent 
only upon enriching themselves. The regiments were 
largely made up of paupers, criminals, and other dregs of the 
population; for the Chinese regarded the profession of 
arms with contempt, and respectable and efficient men 
avoided mihtary service. The officers, like their civil 
superiors, thought only of their own interests, swindled the 
government and their subordinates, and greedily accepted 
Japanese bribes for betraying information. The disgrace- 
ful situation was relieved only by the devotion of a hand- 
ful of army and naval officers, chief of whom was Admiral 
Ting, and he committed suicide after the disastrous battle 
before Wei-hai Wei. 

The equipm.ent of the Chinese troops would have been 
amusing if its grim consequences had not been so pitiful. 
Many soldiers were armed only with spears or bayonets 
fastened to the ends of poles. Many who had guns carried 
old muzzle-loading muskets, or the still more antiquated 
gingals. A few had modem rifles, but they were of varying 
calibers. Cartridges of assorted sizes were thrown in piles 
on the ground, and each soldier had to find, if he could, 
the ones that fitted his particular gun. The officers bore 
umbrellas and fans, and in some instances singing birds. 
There was practically no discipline except in the command 
of General Tso, and the men drank and pillaged and quar- 
relled incessantly. What food the government supplied 
was largely stolen by dishonest officers, and the men were 
left to forage for themselves. The result was that the 
people of the land through which the army passed suffered 
almost as much as if they had been attacked by an enemy. 
For fighting purposes, the Chinese regiments were hardly 
more formidable than flocks of sheep, making a show of a 
few volleys, and then running away as fast as their legs 
could carry them. China had men of splendid strength, 
but they saw no reason why they should leave their shops 
and farms in order to be killed in a war which did not in- 
terest them. The Manchu government officials had gotten 



124 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

themselves into the war, and they should get out of it as 
best they could with the aid of such offscourings of Chinese 
towns as they could hire or compel to enlist. 

Japan, on the other hand, though small and poor in 
comparison with her huge opponent, was thoroughly pre- 
pared for war. Her ablest men were warlike in spirit, 
zealous students of modern mihtary science, and experts 
in militaiy organization. The soldiers were hardy, brave, 
and highly disciplined. The equipment was the very best 
— rifles, artiller}^, and warships of the latest patterns. 
The Intelligence Department had maps showing every hill 
and valley, every creek and tree in the whole zone of opera- 
tions, and surveys and soundings of every square rod of 
rivers and coast-line. The General Staff knew exactly what 
it wanted to do, and where and how to do it; and the whole 
militaiy machine moved with a smoothness, speed, and 
effectiveness which amazed European observers and boded 
ill for the Chinese. 

The war was short, bloody, and decisive. Seven months 
sufficed to carry out the Japanese plans. A series of swift 
successes culminated in the battle of Pyeng}^ang, September 
15. The Chinese met the advancing Japanese, beating 
gongs, waving banners, and firing their old blunderbusses 
after a fashion that did but little more damage than if they 
had been bunches of firecrackers. The Japanese replied 
with a hail of bullets and shells. The result was appalling. 
The plain near Pyengyang quickly became a shambles. 
The Chinese general Tso was killed at the first onset, and 
his troops ignominiously fled. That night the Japanese 
captured the Chinese forts, and the Chinese army, to the 
number of about 12,000, made its way through the city and 
attempted to escape along the road to the north. Estimates 
of its casualties vary, but it is beheved that nearly 5,000 
men were killed, while the Japanese losses were only 250. 
It was a slaughter rather than a battle. The panic-stricken 
Chinese who succeeded in escaping were completely demoral- 
ized. The retreat became a rout, and the war was prac- 
tically ended. During the entire war the Japanese lost 



RIVAL CLAIMS OF CHINA AND JAPAN 125 

only 3,284 meii; of whom only 795 were killed or died from 
wounds, all the rest dying from disease. The Chinese are 
said to have lost 27,917 in battle, besides uncounted num- 
bers who died of disease. 

Chinese commissioners, headed by Viceroy Li Hung 
Chang, and coimselled by the American Honorable John 
W. Foster, met the Japanese Count Ito and Viscount Mutso 
in Shimonoseki and concluded a treaty of peace April 17, 
1895. It was a trying experience for the proud old Viceroy, 
and all the more so because he had undertaken it with 
great reluctance, keenly feeling the humiliating position in 
which he was placed. The treaty recognized the indepen- 
dence of Korea, ceded the Liao-tung peninsula, including 
Port Arthur, to the Japanese, bound the Chinese to pay a 
heavy indemnity, and made several other concessions to 
the victors. 

The independence of Korea was formally proclaimed by 
the King at the Altar of the Spirits of the Lamb, January 
8, 1895. The Japanese Minister, Count Inouye, caused the 
occasion to be celebrated with considerable ceremony. 
The Korean ruler went through the elaborately prescribed 
form with poor grace, and the Korean officials looked on in 
troubled silence. They were not so lacking in intelligence 
as to fail to imderstand that, while Korea by that act be- 
came independent of China, she did not obtain any more 
freedom than she had before, but simply transferred her 
allegiance to Japan; and they preferred China. The King 
was induced to form an assembly of twenty-one coimsellors 
"for the discussion of all matters, grave and trivial, within 
the realm." This body solemnly convened July 30, but 
after a few slimly attended and ineffective meetings was 
superseded by a privy council, December 17. Petitions 
were presented to the throne to " expel' ^ the foreign con- 
queror, but they could avail nothing. For a few years the 
outward forms of independence were maintained after a 
fashion. For the edification of the outside world and to 
lend color to the appearance of reality, these forms cul- 
minated October 15, 1907, in a change of title. Prior to 



12G THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

that date the ruler's designation was ''King/' This word 
(Wang) may signify a tributary prince. ''Emperor/' how- 
ever (Hwang-ti) means in Asia the sovereign of an inde- 
pendent state. And so the world saw the hollowly pa- 
thetic spectacle of the timid, feeble King solemnly assum- 
ing the title of Emperor. Seldom have imperial honors 
been worn in poorer state or exercised with scantier dignity. 
The frail reed of Korean sovereignty could not stand amid 
the international storms of the Far East in the twentieth 
century. What followed will be discussed in a later chap- 
ter. 

Space limits have compelled me to give only in outline 
an account of the long and complicated struggle between 
China and Japan for the possession of Korea. But this 
much appeared to be necessary to show how deeply rooted 
in former centuries some of the present conditions and 
problems are. Readers who wish to delve more deeply 
into the history of the country will find ample materials in 
Homer B. Hulbert's The History of Korea, and William 
Elliot Griflis's Corea the Hermit Nation, to whose stores of 
facts I have been much indebted. 



CHAPTER VIII 
RUSSIA'S EFFORT TO OBTAIN KOREA 

I HAVE discussed in another book^ Russia's ambition to 
reach an open port on the north Pacific Ocean, the Russian 
advance across northern Asia, the remarkable natural re- 
sources of Siberia, and the construction of the Trans- 
Siberian Railway, which was begun in 1891 and practically 
completed in 1902. It was a great and costly enterprise, 
splendid in conception and in achievement, flinging a high- 
way of steel across 5,426 miles of territory which the world 
had regarded as a wilderness of sand and snow. 

There was nothing to interfere with Russia's freedom to 
run the line of the Trans-Siberian Railway wherever she 
liked, except two obstacles, one natural and the other 
political. The first was Lake Baikal, about two-thirds of 
the way across Siberia. It is the largest body of fresh water 
in the eastern hemisphere except the Victoria Nyanza, in 
Africa. It lies 1,561 feet above sea-level, is 40 miles wide, 
400 miles long, and 3,185 feet deep. The surface is frozen to 
a depth of about nine feet five months in the 3^ear, and the ice 
breaks into fissures and piles into hummocks and windrows 
that prevent easy and safe passage on sledges. The Rus- 
sians temporarily solved this problem by using heavy ferry- 
steamers which were kept running in winter as ice-breakers. 
But as soon as practicable, the railway-line was carried 
around the lake. This involved a detour of 200 miles 
through a mountainous region, which presented serious en- 
gineering difficulties. No less than thirty-three tunnels 
were required. But the Russians persevered and the detour 
v/as completed in 1904. 

The political obstacle was near the eastern end, where 
Chinese Manchuria projects northward so far as to necessi- 

^ RiLssia in Transfonnation, pp. 135-164. 
127 



128 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

tate another long detour and to interpose an extensive alien 
territory between the Trans-Baikal region and the ter- 
minus of the railway at Vladivostok. This difficulty was 
eliminated by an ^'agreement/' September 6, 1896, through 
the Russo-Chinese Bank in Peking, in which China was 
''persuaded'^ to permit the constmction of the railway 
^^ under joint control/' south of the Amur River. This con- 
cession made Russian influence paramount in an immense 
area to the southward and enabled the Russians in the fol- 
lowing year to begin the development of a squalid settle- 
ment on the Sungari River into the important city of Har- 
bin in the centre of one of the most productive wheat and 
grazing regions in the world. A concession obtained in 
March, 1898, enabled Russia to build a branch line from 
Harbin southward to Port Arthur. That this desirable ter- 
ritory was considered a Russian preserve soon appeared 
in a proposal which M. Plangon, Russian Charge d' Affaires 
at Peking, presented to the Chinese Government, one 
clause of which reads: '^That the Chinese Government will 
not make any decision with regard to the opening to foreign 
trade of any new treaty ports in Manchuria and the estab- 
lishment of foreign consuls there, wdthout previous con- 
sultation with the Imperial Government. '^ 

Vladivostok, while a position of great natural strength, 
and with a fine harbor in summer, is closed by ice six 
months in the year. Moreover, it is not upon the open 
Pacific but upon the Japan Sea, from which there are only 
three outlets: La Perouse (or Soya) Strait, about five hun- 
dred miles northeast; Tsugaru Strait, four hundred and 
twenty-four miles east; and Korea Strait, nearly six hun- 
dred miles south. The first is a far-northern wintry passage 
between Saghalien and the Japanese Yezo ; the second is a 
narrow channel between the two largest islands of Japan, 
Hondo and Yezo; and the latter, although one hundred 
and twenty miles wide, is bordered on one side by Japan, 
and is cut in two by the Japanese island of Tsushima. In 
other words, the Japan Sea is literally Japan's sea. and it 
would be difficult for a fleet of any other nation, to get in 



RUSSIA'S EFFORT TO OBTAIN KOREA 129 

or out of it without her consent, as a Russian admiral after- 
ward learned to his sorrow. The later annexation of Korea 
locked a door which already was shut. 

Naturally, therefore, Russia began to press her way 
southward through Manchuria, that great province of 
China whose southern end is washed by the Yellow Sea. 
China's resistance was no match for Russian diplomacy, 
and rapid progress was being made when the China-Japan 
War broke out, in 1894. I have discussed this war in an- 
other chapter. Suffice it here that the Japanese made 
short work of the Chinese, and in November, after a brilliant 
campaign, they captured Port Arthur, which had been a 
squalid fishing-village imtil Li Hung Chang, then Viceroy 
of Chih-li, had fortified it on the advice of German engineers, 
who discerned its strategic value. April 17, 1895, the 
treaty of peace was signed at Shimonoseki. This treaty 
stipulated among other things that Korea should be abso- 
lutely independent, but that the Liao-tung peninsula, as 
well as Formosa and the Pescadores, should be ceded to 
Japan, and an indemnity of two hundred million taels paid. 
Ostensibly in the interest of the integrity of China, but 
really in the interests of her own ambition, Russia per- 
suaded France and Germany to join her in notifying the 
Japanese Government, April 23, that " it would not be per- 
mitted to retain permanent possession of any portion of the 
mainland of Asia." 

The soHcitude of the Russians for the integrity of China 
was touching, but it did not prevent them from making one 
encroachment after another upon the coveted territory. 
The treaty of St. Petersburg, December 26, 1896, gave the 
Eastern Chinese Railroad Company, whose stock could be 
held only by Russians and Chinese, the right to construct 
a line through Manchuria, to develop mines, to promote 
all other commercial enterprises, and to station troops in 
Manchuria ^Ho protect the railroad." This virtually made 
Manchuria a Russian province.^ 

March 8, 1898, Russia threw off all disguise and peremp- 

* Cf. Alfred Rambaud's The Case of Russia, pp. 1-135. 



130 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

torily demanded from China a lease of the Liao-tung penin- 
sula, including Port Arthur and 800 square miles of adjoin- 
ing territory. The Chinese helplessly yielded, and March 
27, the humiliating lease was signed. Grim significance was 
given to Russia's action by the prompt appearance at Port 
Arthur of 20,000 soldiers and 90,000 Chinese coolies, who 
were set to work developing a great modern fortification. 
The term of the lease was twenty-five years, but he must 
have been a very unsophisticated observer who imagined 
that such enormous expenditures with such interests at 
stake would be voluntarily abandoned at the expiration of 
so brief a period. 

The harbor of Port Arthur is hardly large enough for 
naval purposes, and quite inadequate for commercial use. 
The Russians did not wish, anyway, to make their fortress 
accessible to the rest of the world. The treaty of March 
27, 1898, under which Russia acquired possession of Port 
Arthur and TaHen-wan, stipulated that '^all land held 
by Chinese within such limits, as well as the adjacent 
waters, shall be held by Russia alone on lease. . . . Port 
Arthur shall be a naval base for the sole use of Russian and 
Chinese men-of-war, and be considered as an unopened 
port so far as the naval and mercantile vessels of other na- 
tions are concerned." So the Russians decided to build a 
commercial city thirty-three miles northeast of Port Arthur 
and to call it Dalny, which quite appropriately means " far 
away.'' Most cities grow, but the Russians could not 
afford to wait for so slow a method, and a metropolis was 
made to order as a result of an edict issued by the Czar, 
July 30, 1899. 

The harbor at Dalny is a fine one, with thirty feet of 
water at low tide, so that large vessels can lie along the 
docks and transfer their cargoes directly to trains for 
Europe. The boom cities of the American West yielded 
the palm to this boom city of the Far East. In 1899 there 
was practically nothing at Dalny but a wretched Chinese 
village. By 1903 great piers had been constructed; enor- 
mous warehouses and elevators erected; gas, electric light, 



RUSSIA'S EFFORT TO OBTAIN KOREA 131 

water and street-car plants installed ; wide and well-sewered 
streets laid out; and a thoroughly modem and handsome 
city plamied in four sections, the first of which was admin- 
istrative, the second mercantile, the third residential, and 
the fourth Chinese. Neither labor nor expense was spared 
in the construction of this ambitious city, which within four 
years had a population of 50,000 and represented an ex- 
penditure of $150,000,000. 

The edict of the Czar promised that Dahiy was to enjoy 
"the rights of free trade which belong to free ports'^ upon 
certain "conditions.'^ But the history of Russia's dealings 
with outsiders makes it not imcharitable to suspect that 
the port would have been really free only so far as the in- 
terests of the Trans-Siberian Railway might require and 
that the line of freedom would have been so closely drawn 
at the city limits that the vaunted libert}^ would not be 
worth much to any but Russian subjects. Russian pohcy 
in Asia was not philanthropic. 

It has been alleged that the Chinese benefited from Rus- 
sian occupation, but in 1903 M. Gerrare wTote: "It is true 
that some thousands of coolies from Chefoo have found 
occasional remunerative employment in constructing rail- 
ways, building forts, barracks, and houses; but these are 
not resident, are no more part of the population of Man- 
churia, and the purchasing power of the people has not been 
greatly increased by the money Russia has expended there. 
Manchuria has the railway, but enormous tracts of fertile 
land have been thrown out of cultivation; thriving towns 
and villages too numerous to count have disappeared en- 
tirely; the junks are off the rivers, trade is at a standstill, 
industry is dead, the robber bands have increased in num- 
ber and infest the countryside so that travel into the wilder 
parts is no safer than it was previous to the imposition of 
the Russian regime." 

The confusion caused by the Boxer uprising of 1900 af- 
forded Russia a pretext for further aggressions. Asserting, 
and with reason, that foreign interests in Manchuria were 
imperilled, Russia sent troops into New-chwang and vir- 



132 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

tually assiuned the government of all Manchuria. In a 
treaty with China, signed April 8, 1902, Russia solemnly 
agreed to evacuate Manchuria, except the leased Liao-tung 
peninsula, by October 8, 1903. The agreement was charm- 
ing in graciousness, the first of the four articles reading: 
''His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, desiring to 
give fresh proof of his love of peace and his sentiments of 
friendship for His Majesty the Emperor of China, not- 
withstanding the fact that the first attacks upon the peace- 
able Russian population were made from various points in 
Manchuria, which is situated on the frontier, consents to 
the re-establishment of the authority of the Chinese Govern- 
ment in the aforesaid province, and restores to the Chinese 
Government the right to exercise governmental and admin- 
istrative powers there as before its occupation by the Rus- 
sian troops.'' The other articles provided for the necessary 
details, and everything appeared delightfully satisfactory. 
October 8, 1903, came and went, however, but Russia re- 
mained. Expostulations were met with evasive replies 
and specious excuses, and the world soon realized that 
Russia did not have the slightest intention of abandoning 
the vantage-ground that she had won. Russia had reached 
the open Pacific Ocean, and she proposed to stay there. 

The Russians were not satisfied with their gains in Man- 
churia, and for several reasons which they deemed con- 
vincing. 

The tiny basin at Port Arthur and the fair-sized harbor 
at Dahiy were not deemed adequate to the needs of a great 
nation w^hich had large ambitions in the north Pacific seas. 
Moreover, the Russians soon found that when the wind 
was from the southeast the harbor of Dalny did not afford 
safe anchorage. So at vast expense they constructed a 
breakwater. This gave needed protection, although the 
quieter water came so near freezing several times as to 
cause uneasiness. Additional port facihties were desirable, 
and the Russians began to seek them with greater deter- 
mination. 

Where else could they look ? Manifestly not on the China 



RUSSIA'S EFFORT TO OBTAIN KOREA 133 

side, for the next harbor in that direction is New-chwang, 
which is ice-bound in the winter. Beyond that is the im- 
perial province of Chih-li. China, of course, could not 
yield that, nor does it contain a harbor worthy of the name, 
Taku being only a shallow and dangerous roadstead. In- 
deed, there is no good harbor on that side until Chefoo is 
reached; and Germany had already pre-empted that. 
Plainly, no other harbors westward could be acquired with- 
out danger of international complications. Europe acqui- 
esced in Russians possession of the Liao-tung peninsula, but 
any approach toward the capital of China would be another 
matter and would involve coUision with the conflicting am- 
bitions of other Western Powers. 

There was but one place to which the Russians could 
turn, and that was southward, where lay the spacious and 
admirabty located harbors of Korea, admirably adapted to 
Russia's ambitions. 

Russia felt, too, that Korea was essential to her for other 
reasons. It borders the Manchurian frontier for about 
five hundred miles. Control of the Korean side of that 
frontier was therefore necessar}^ to Russia's security in 
Manchuria, since a hostile Power in Korea could easily cross 
the border and break the north-and-south lines of communi- 
cation. Moreover, the Korean peninsula lay between the 
two Russian fortifications of Vladivostok and Port Arthur, 
and dominated their connection by water. As Manchuria 
still nominally belonged to the Chinese Empire, and was 
only held by Russia under a lease about whose terms there 
was constant dispute, Russia naturally coveted possession 
of the intervening peninsula so that there would be unob- 
structed communication between her two naval bases. 
The Russians therefore deemed Korea indispensable to 
their naval and commercial purposes in the north Pacific 
and to the protection of their interests in Manchuria. The 
undertaking looked temptingly easy. It was clear to Rus- 
sia as to the rest of the world that Korea was too small and 
weak and too hopelessly degenerate to maintain its inde- 
pendence and that it was destined, sooner or later, to 



134 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

fall into the hands of some other Power. Russia felt 
that her need of it was paramount, and that it was desir- 
able to obtain possession before some rival secured the 
prize. 

For these reasons Russia began to make systematic 
"diplomatic'* approaches toward Korea. In 1859 they had 
tried to obtain a foothold upon the important island of 
Tsushima, which commands the Korea Strait. They were 
making good progress, erecting barracks and laying out 
plantations, when a British fleet, commanded by Sir James 
Hope, put in an appearance, and the Russians were obliged 
to abandon their project. They now inaugurated system- 
atic plans for the control of the mainland. 

An agreement between the Russian and Japanese Minis- 
ters in Seoul, May 14, 1896, regarding the number and dis- 
position of Japanese troops in Korea, was followed by the 
Yamagata-Lobanoff protocol, signed at St. Petersburg 
June 9, of the same year, which provided that "if, as a re- 
sult of reforms which should be considered indispensable, 
it should become necessary to have recourse to foreign 
debts, the two governments should of a common accord 
render their support to Korea"; and that "the Japanese 
and Russian Governments should try to abandon to Korea, 
in so far as the financial and economic situation of that 
country should permit, the creation and maintenance of an 
armed force and of a police organized of native subjects, 
in proportion sufficient to maintain internal order, without 
foreign aid.'' 

This protocol proved to be no deterrent to the Slav, for 
the ink was hardly dry upon the signatures when the Rus- 
sian Minister in Seoul tried to have the Korean army placed 
under Russian officers, and a little later he sought to gain 
control of the revenues of the country by having the Rus- 
sian M. Kir Alexeieff substituted for the British Mr. J. 
McLeavy Brown as financial adviser and general director 
of customs. He succeeded in getting an order for Brown's 
dismissal, but the doughty Irishman refused to recognize it; 



RUSSIA'S EFFORT TO OBTAIN KOREA 135 

and was presently reinstated in his position, which, as a 
matter of fact, he had not reUnquished.^ 

April 25, 1898, as a salve to the wounded feelings of the 
Japanese and in order to leave herself free to consolidate 
her power in Manchuria, Russia entered into an agree- 
ment with Japan by which each Power promised to respect 
the integrity of Korea and not to maintain there more than 
800 soldiers. This was followed, August 25, by the Nishi- 
Rosen protocol, which provided in Article I that "the 
Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia definitely 
recognize the sovereignty and entire independence of Korea, 
and mutually engage to abstain from all direct interference 
in the affairs of that country ''; and in Article III that "in 
view of the great development of the commercial and in- 
dustrial enterprise of Japan in Korea, as also the consider- 
able number of Japanese subjects residing in that coimtry, 
the Russian Imperial Government shall not impede the 
development of commercial and industrial relations be- 
tween Japan and Korea." 

These agreements prevented Russia from adopting a 
poUcy of open aggression in Korea. However, a httle 
matter like a solemn promise did not hinder the Russian 
Government where its interests were involved. At this 
point the friendship of France came in handy. France had 
no independent ambitions in Korea, but she was in close 
league with Russia, with substantial benefits in mind both 
in Europe and Asia. Russia now endeavored to obtain 
through her ally what she could not directly obtain without 
open rupture with Japan. Frenchmen were placed in all 
possible official positions in Korea, and as the Emperor 
was controlled by the Franco-Russian party, the Russians 
secured in this way a number of substantial advantages. 

This scheme proved to be helpful in furthering Russians 
desire to secure an entraace to Korea by railway. July 4, 
1896, a French company had obtained a concession to con- 

^ Cf. Hershey's International Law and Diplomacy of the Russo-Chinese War, 
pp. 45 seq. 



136 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

struct a line from Wiju, on the Yalu River, to Seoul. The 
company failed to cany out its contract to begin work 
within the period specified, and in June, 1899, waived its 
rights on condition that the Korean Government should 
build the road and use only French engineers and materials. 
Every^body knew that the iTiler of Korea had neither the 
hiclination nor the money to build railroads, that Russia 
was behind this plan, and that Russian funds would enable 
him to execute them unless it should finally become prac- 
ticable for the French to build the road. It was significant, 
at any rate, that the French Minister looked after the sur- 
veys. Wiju being on the border of Manchuria, Russia 
would have in this line direct entrance to Seoul from the 
north, and could get her troops easily and quickly into the 
capital. 

At one important point, however, an obstacle was en- 
countered. As inspector-general of maritime customs, Mr. 
McLeavy Brown, was the virtual manager of the revenues 
of Korea. Continued efforts were made to replace him 
with a man who would be friendly to Russian interests, 
and would not object to the proposal to reheve the monetary 
embarrassment of the Emperor by a French loan of five 
million yen, to be secured and repaid by the sympathetically 
managed customs. The Korean officials were more than 
willing to have a customs inspector who would be willing 
to give them an opportunity to peculate. But the British 
and American legations promptly and significantly advised 
the government that the dismissal of the incorruptible 
Brown would not inure to the advantage of Korea, and 
they so vigorously protested against the virtual mortgaging 
of the empire to France and Russia that, although the pa- 
pers had actually been signed, the deal was quietly dropped. 

It was generally beHeved that the Franco-Russian 
schemes were materially aided by the Roman Catholic 
Church in Korea. It was then represented by a bishop, 
thirty-nine priests, and twenty-four imordained workers, 
all French, and under La Societe des Missions Etrangeres 
of Paris. The cathedral in Seoul is one of the most stately 



RUSSIA'S EFFORT TO OBTAIN KOREA 137 

buildings in the capital, and scattered over the country 
were numerous churches and sixty-one schools of various 
grades. The relations between the French Mission and the 
French poHtical plans were very close, as they usually were 
in Asia and Africa, and the legation and the missionaries 
worked together so openly that the priests were commonly 
regarded as quasi-poHtical emissaries. 

A more direct effort was made through a Korean woman. 
By that combination of flattery and adroitness in which 
Russians were adepts, they cast the speU of their influence 
over the Queen, a woman of considerable ability and the 
most aggressive factor in court circles. If it be thought 
strange that she should have allowed herself to be made 
the tool of the Russians, it must be remembered that she 
could not see all the ulterior purposes of Russian domina- 
tion, and that the Russians were so skilful in their manage- 
ment of Asiatic peoples that they usually succeeded in mak- 
ing themselves more popular than their rivals. At any 
rate, the ablest woman in Korea became the friend of 
Russia against the Japanese. Something of a diplomat 
herself, and aided by the astute counsel of the Russian 
Minister, matters began to go Russia's way. 

Meanwhile the Japanese were not inactive. They had 
waged a war for the integrity of Korea, and after their vic- 
tory they had solemnly proclaimed its independence. But 
they felt that their interests there w^ere greater than those 
of other nations, and they were not disposed to acquiesce in 
Russia's schemes. The war had given them the upper hand 
and they proposed to keep it. They officered and drilled 
Korean troops, filled public posts with their own men, and 
vigorously pushed their own plans. Finding that the 
Queen was hindering their efforts, and furious over the ad- 
vantage which their foes were thus obtaining, the Japanese 
began to plot with her bitterest enemy, the Tai-wen-kun, 
father of the King; and October 8, 1895, they committed 
the blunder as well as the crime of assassinating the Queen. 

Not satisfied with the death of the Queen, the insatiable 
Tai-wen-kun caused a royal edict to be drafted defaming her 



13S THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

memor}^, stripping her of royal prerogatives, and degrad- 
ing her to the humblest rank of subjects — a punishment 
which Orientals deem the depth of infamy. This insult to 
the dead concluded as follows: ^'We have endeavored to 
discover her whereabouts, but as she does not come forth 
and appear, We are convinced that she is not only unfitted 
and unwoith}^ of the Queen's rank but also that her guilt 
is excessive and brimful. Therefore with her We may not 
succeed to the gloiy of the Royal Ancestiy. So we hereby 
depose her from the rank of Queen and reduce her to the 
level of the lowest class.'' Broken, humiliated, and terrified 
as the King was, this was too much. He flatly refused to 
sign the edict, exclaiming that he would rather have his 
hands cut off. But the Tai-wen-kun was not to be thwarted, 
and the edict was published over the signatures of the 
Prime Minister and eight other members of the Cabinet. 

There is a sharp controversy as to whether the Japanese 
authorities were really responsible for the murder of the 
Queen. Professor George T. Ladd, who vigorously de- 
fends them, says: '^The Japanese Home Government was 
not responsible for the murder of the Korean Queen. It is 
true that General Miura and the Japanese Soshi were im- 
pHcated and co-operated in the murder of the Queen, but 
she was one of the most cruel and corrupt women that ever 
lived. During her time, according to the estimate — I do 
not know how true — of one of the Korean bank officials, 
she had 2,857 people put to death at her own personal 
caprice. If the Emperor looked on any girl or woman in 
the palace, the Queen had her eyes torn out; and if the 
Emperor went further, she had her heart torn out. She 
festooned one of the gates once with the heads of some 
thirty friends of the Emperor's father, the Tai-wen-kun. 
. . . Nevertheless, the murder of the Queen was wrong, 
and Mr. Uchida, later consul-general in New York, who 
was consul in Chemulpo at the time, got word that the 
murder was to take place, and he wired to Tokyo to prevent 
it, but too late."^ 

* With Marquis Ito in Korea, p. 7. 



RUSSIA'S EFFORT TO OBTAIN KOREA 139 

The cruelties perpetrated by the Queen are not to be 
condoned, but they are irrelevant because they were not 
the cause of the assassination. Such atrocities are unhap- 
pily common among Oriental despots, who think no more 
of decapitating a subject whom they fear or dislike than 
an American would think of drowning a cat. The Japanese 
did not care how many Koreans the Queen executed, and 
the Tai-wen-kun, whose career had been far more brutal 
and bloody than that of the Queen, was in no danger from 
them. The murder of the Queen caused such a storm of 
indignation, and the blow to Japanese prestige proved to 
be so serious, that a court of inquiry was convened at Hiro- 
shima. Whatever may be the technical accuracy of the 
statement that ^Hhe Japanese Home Government was not 
responsible for the murder of the Korean Queen," the ofl&cial 
decision handed down by the Japanese court is significant 
reading, as the following extracts show: 

"The accused Miura Gow assumed his official duties . . . 
on September 1, 1895. According to his observation, 
things in Korea were tending in the wrong direction, the 
coiu"t was daily growing more and more arbitrary, and at- 
tempting wanton interference with the conduct of State 
affairs." Reference is then made to several conferences 
with the Tai-wen-kun and Japanese officials, one of which 
was held October 3. "The decision arrived at on that 
occasion was that assistance should be rendered to the 
Tai-wen-kun's entry into the palace. ... It was further 
resolved that this opportunity should be availed of for 
taking the life of the Queen, who exercised overwhelming 
influence in the Court. . . . Miiu-a told them (the escort 
of the Tai-wen-kun) that on the success of the enterprise 
depended the eradication of the evils that had done so 
much mischief to the Kingdom for the past twenty years, 
and instigated them to despatch the Queen when they 
entered the palace. . . . About dawn, the whole party 
entered the palace through the Kwang-hwa gate, and at 
once proceeded to the inner chambers. Notwithstanding 
these facts, there is no sufficient evidence to prove that any 



140 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

of the accused actually committed the crime originally 
meditated by them. . . . For these reasons, the accused, 
each and all, are hereby discharged." 

A more naive conclusion it would be difficult to imagine. 
The fact of conspiracy to assassinate the Queen was estab- 
lished; the Queen was assassinated as the deHberately 
planned result of the conspiracy; but the conspirators, 
who ''proceeded to the inner chambers'' 'Ho despatch the 
Queen" were "discharged" ! 

A reign of terror followed. The panic-stricken King be- 
came abjectly helpless in the hands of the Japanese party, 
and they proceeded to run things with a high hand. A 
party of Koreans and Russian sympathizers matured a plot 
for the rescue of the King, who was a virtual prisoner in his 
own palace. Spies and traitors made it known, and the 
would-be rescuers were met by soldiers who shot them 
down without mercy. At the request of the American 
Minister, two missionaries, the Reverend Horace G. Under- 
wood, D.D., and 0. R. Avison, M.D., together with Mr. 
Homer B. Hulbert, had gone to the palace in the hope that 
their presence with the King would protect him from per- 
sonal violence in the melee that was expected to follow. 
His Majesty welcomed them with pathetic eagerness. The 
missionaries were the only men he could trust. He beheved, 
too, that his enemies would not dare to molest Americans, 
and he felt safer when they were beside him. He sat close 
to them during the wear}^, anxious hours, and after mid- 
night, when the sound of firing had died away, he leaned 
his head upon Doctor Underwood's shoulder, and the 
monarch of Korea slept the sleep of exhaustion in the arms 
of a missionary. 

For several weeks the timid King besought the mission- 
aries to spend every night with him, and after they ceased 
doing so the royal head lay down to fitful slumber and un- 
pleasant dreams. He carefully secluded himself by day 
as well as by night in the women's apartments of the 
palace. Even there he was not free from espionage, for 
his enemies kept two sharp-eyed women, one of them the 



RUSSIA'S EFFORT TO OBTAIN KOREA 141 

wife of the Tai-wen-kun, to take turns in watching him 
with unceasing vigilance. After four months of this hu- 
miliating bondage the unhappy King managed to effect a 
coup d'etat which had startling results. In the small hours 
of the morning of February 11, 1896, when the King and the 
Crown Prince were supposed to be asleep after a birthday 
feast during which wine had freely flowed, and the watch- 
fulness of the duenna guards was dulled by their own pota- 
tionS; the royal pair stole softly out, entered women's chairs 
which friends had secretly provided for them, passed the 
sentinels who had been pUed with liquor to lessen their sus- 
picions, and were swiftly borne to the Russian legation! 
The Russian Minister received the fugitives with open arms. 
That he had known of their coming was evidenced by the 
fact that he had brought up one himdred and sixty marines 
from a warship at Chemulpo, and had made other suitable 
arrangements for his expected guests. 

From the safe shelter of the Russian legation the royal 
fugitive issued two characteristically Oriental proclama- 
tions : 

" Alas alas ! on account of Our unworthiness and mal-administra- 
tion the wicked advanced and the wise retired. Of the last ten 
years, none has passed without troubles. Some were brought on by 
those We had trusted as the members of the body, while others by 
those of Our own bone and flesh. Our dynasty of five centuries has 
thereby been often endangered and millions of Our subjects have 
thereby been gradually impoverished. These facts make Us blush 
and sweat for shame. But these troubles have been brought about 
through Our partiality and self-will, giving rise to rascality and 
blunders leading to calamities. All have been Our own fault from the 
first to the last. . . . We shall endeavor to be merciful. No pardon, 
however, shall be extended to the principal traitors concerned in the 
affairs of July, 1894, and of October, 1895. But to all the rest, a 
general amnesty is granted, irrespective of the degree of their offenses. 
Reform your hearts; ease your minds; go about your business, public 
or private, as in times past." 

The King remained with the hospitable Slav for a year, 
and the seat of government was practically transferred 
to the Russian legation, which with the ro3^al person in its 



142 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

possession was not slow to avail itself of the opportunity 
thus afforded. There was, indeed, a great pretense of 
delicacy and disinterestedness. Indeed it should be said 
that men of other nationalities in Seoul gave the Russian 
Minister credit for modesty and forbearance, and even 
criticised him for not taking fuller advantage of his oppor- 
tunity. However, events soon showed that Russia was 
not losing much. The grateful monarch was easily per- 
suaded to agree to a convention, which was signed in Mos- 
cow, January 9, 1896, recognizing and organizing Russian 
interests in Korea. This was followed April 28, 1896, and 
therefore while the King was still at the Russian legation, 
by a concession giving a Russian company the monopoly 
for twenty years of the lumber region in the Musan district 
on the Tumen River, and on the island of Uinung in the 
Japan Sea. The concession provided that the King should 
receive a royalty of twenty-five per cent of the annual profit 
and that at any time within five years after the work had 
been begun the company might cut lumber in the valley 
of the Yalu. January 1, 1901, this time limit was extended 
to twenty years. 

After the Emperor returned to his palace, or rather to a 
new one, for a Korean iiiler will not live in a palace where 
the death of his predecessor or consort has occurred, valu- 
able concessions followed rapidly. The Emperor was a 
chronic bankrupt, and no serious difficulty was encountered 
in inducing him to exchange privileges, which meant noth- 
ing to liim, for Russian gold. A concession was obtained for 
mining coal in Ham-g}'ongdo, and April 20, 1900, for whale- 
fishing off the southern coast. With the utmost suavity 
the Russians represented the need of some place on shore 
where the oil could be tried out. The unsuspecting Em- 
peror agreed. But since whales were made, no such build- 
ings had been erected for trying out oil, and it soon became 
apparent that, under the guise of that innocent-looking 
concession, the Russian bear had laid a massive paw on 
a strategic point on the southern end of the peninsula. 

The Russians were particularly desirous of obtaining 



RUSSIA'S EFFORT TO OBTAIN KOREA ll.'] 

Masampo. The bay is on the southern end of the penin- 
sula, opposite the Island of Koji, which protects it from 
the outside. It is a good harbor, one of the best on the 
north Pacific coast, and spacious enough to accommodate 
a whole fleet. Such a port could be made a fortress of the 
first magnitude, and would give to its possessor the com- 
mand of all southern Korea and a clear passage through 
the Korea Strait. 

In May, 1899, the Korean Government was induced to 
make Masampo a treaty port. As foreigners have the 
right to purchase land within a radius of three miles from 
a treaty port, the Russian Minister, M. Pavloff, promptly 
appeared on the ground, staked off a strategic line of gen- 
erous proportions, and informed the local magistrate that 
the Russians would take it for a dock and coaling sheds for 
a Russian steamship company. Imagining himself secure, 
he sailed for home on furlough, and it was not imtil July 
that M. Stein, of the legation staff, arrived to complete the 
purchase. To his consternation he found that the Japa- 
nese had abeady bought the tract direct from the Korean 
owners. A stormy time followed. The Russian lost his 
temper and made vehement demands upon the Korean 
Government to cancel the sale and let the Russians have 
the site. But the government, '^advised'' by the Japanese, 
was obHged to reply that it could not interfere, the land 
having been purchased from its owners in a regular way, 
and in accordance with law. Demands upon the Japanese 
Minister, Mr. Hayashi, to order or persuade the buyers to 
sell the whole or at least a part of the tract were equally 
unavailing. Then bribery and threats were tried with the 
local magistrates at Masampo ; but this course accomplished 
nothing more than a temporary withholding of the deeds. 
Furious at finding all other means futile, the Russian Charge, 
September 14, notified the Korean Government that if the 
Japanese contract was not cancelled, the Russian Govern- 
ment might be obHged to take steps to protect its interests. 
October 4 he threatened to seize the desired land. The 
Korean Government; braced by the Japanese Minister, re- 



144 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

maining firm, a Russian squadron appeared at Chemulpo, 
March 16, and was given a significantly ostentatious recep- 
tion by M. Pavloff, who by this time had returned to his 
post. On the 18th, the Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs 
signed a lease by which the Russians obtained several other 
tracts of land at Masampo. The Korean Minister also 
gave a pledge that the island of Kojedo, near Masampo, 
should not be alienated to others. The Russians continued 
to buy every available spot within the three-mile limit, and 
once they were on the point of securing a large tract beyond 
it. The Japanese promptly and vigorously warned the 
Korean Government that this would not be tolerated, and 
the Russians withdrew. 

In May, 1900, the Russians tried to lease Tjapok on the 
inner shore of Masampo; but again finding that the Japa- 
nese had gotten ahead of them, they leased Pankumi on 
the outer shore, and began to improve it as a base for the 
Russian fleet. Meantime, the Japanese had retained the 
valuable site which they had originally secured in the sum- 
mer of 1901, and had added to it several other tracts, in- 
cluding one of forty acres. ^ Thus the Japanese and the 
Russians were face to face at this important port. If the 
Japanese Mmister, Mr. Hayashi, had not been so alert and 
determined, Masampo would have fallen wholly into the 
hands of the Russians, and would have been made a forti- 
fication of such strength as to give Russia control of southern 
Korea and the command of Korea Strait. 

Thwarted in the south, the Russians again turned their 
attention to the north. April 3, 1901, the Emperor was 
induced to promise that he would not grant any further 
mining concessions to foreigners, but that if the right to 
operate the Korea household mines were given to any for- 
eigner, it should be to a Russian. It was also agreed that 
if any foreign capital were borrowed for the construction 
of the railroad from Seoul to Wiju, it should be from 
Russia. 

The timber concession in the Yalu River basin provoked 

* C/. Asakawa, The Russo-Ja-panese Conflict, pp. 274-277. 



RUSSIA'S EFFORT TO OBTAIN KOREA 145 

the sharpest controversy and did much to intensify the 
strain. This concession had been almost forgotten in the 
disputes over other matters. Only a few trees had been 
felled at Musan, and almost nothing had been done at 
Uinung. But it now became apparent that the innocent- 
looking clause conveying the optional right to monopolize 
lumber interests in the valley of the Yalu was a prize that 
the Russians were not overlooking. April 13, 1903, the 
Korean Government was informed that the company would 
now avail itself of its right to operate on the Yalu, and that 
Baron Gunzburg would represent the company in Seoul. 
What that meant soon became clear. The unsophisticated 
ruler thought that he had simply granted permission to 
cut trees in the lower part of the main valley; but the Rus- 
sians interpreted ^^ valley'^ to mean all the vast region 
drained by the entire river and all its tributaries, a region 
whose immense forests were worth a thousand times what 
the wily Russians had paid for the concession, to say noth- 
ing of its strategic political value. The Emperor was to 
receive a share of the annual profits in addition to the 
initial payment, but it was only a paltry share. Japan 
protested as soon as this precious agreement became known; 
but the protest was unavailing. The Russians had been 
shrewd enough to slip into the concession a clause that, in 
the event of dispute as to the meaning of the concession, 
the Russian interpretation should prevail. This left the 
Koreans and Japanese absolutely helpless. 

The Russians began to construct military roads through- 
out the territoiy, thus bringing a large part of northern 
Korea into direct connection with their militaiy base across 
the frontier. Under the pretext of protecting the property 
and the workmen who were employed, Russian soldiers 
were sent across the Yalu. The harbor of Yongampo, near 
the mouth of the river, was a long distance from Mt. Paikma, 
where the timber was to be cut, but it was capable of being 
made a good harbor. It controlled the valley of the Yalu, 
and it might be made a point of junction between the Trans- 
Siberian Railway and the Seoul- Wiju line. In May (1903), 



14G THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Russian soldiers in civilian dress quietly entered Yongampo, 
with a large number of Korean and Chinese coolies, and 
began to build what they blandly described as ''timber 
warehouses." There were indeed warehouses, but they 
did not contain timber. An American who visited Yon- 
gampo in December wrote that the Russians had already 
erected substantial brick buildings, including large barracks 
and stables; that a breakwater had been constructed — a 
veiy creditable performance for one summer's work; that 
the one hundred Russians, with one or two exceptions, were 
all military men; that they made no secret of the larger 
building operations which were contemplated the following 
spring; and that everything indicated a semipolitical and 
semimiHtary permanent occupation. The local Koreans 
at first resented the coming of the Russians, but abundant 
work at high wages soon quieted their fears. Of course it 
would never do to leave such "timber" interests rnipro- 
tected, and the original number of Russian soldiers was 
soon increased to two hundred, while at Antung and other 
places on the Chinese side of the Yalu considerable bodies 
of Russian troops were assembled. 

The meaning was unmistakable. Japan, seeing what 
was going on, urged the Korean Emperor to open Yongampo 
as a treaty port, and induced Great Britain and the United 
States to join in the request. But Russian influence with 
the weak and corrupt iTiler was strong enough to defeat the 
effort. 

It will be seen from all this how persistently Russia pur- 
sued her policy to entrench herself upon an unfrozen sea, 
and why the Russians felt that they could not yield without 
sacrificing interests that were essential to their purpose. 
Russia moved to her goal as steadily as a glacier — ^huge, 
cold, silent, but persistent. British, German, French, and 
American policies come and go ; but Russian detennination 
to reach the open ocean, Hke Tennyson's ''Brook," goes "on 
forever." For a long period the rest of the world paid Httle 
attention to the Muscovite Empire, but all the time it was 
quietly encroaching on other countries, and adding one 



RUSSIA'S EFFORT TO OBTAIN KOREA 147 

region after another to its already vast possessions. There 
was a facination ahnost terrible in this stealthy^ never-rest- 
ing, all-embracing movement upon weaker nations. Against 
such a power poor Korea was utterly helpless. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE RUSSIA-JAPAN WAR 

The purposes of the Slav were not destined to develop 
further without challenge, and that challenge came from 
Japan. The Japanese were spurred on both by resentment 
and self-interest. The resentment had been created by 
the Port Arthur incident at the close of the China-Japan 
War. Li Hung Chang is alleged to have written in his 
MemoirSj shortly after the peace of Shimonoseki which 
concluded the China-Japan War, that Count Cassini had 
informed the Chinese Government that "Japan will not be 
permitted, either now or in the future, to seize upon any 
part of Manchuria or the mainland." The Memoirs include 
many things that the editor imagined that the Viceroy 
might or should have said; but this particular sajdng is 
quite in accord with the known attitude of the Russian 
Government at the time. At any rate Russia ordered 
Japan to leave the Liao-tung peninsula, and peremptorily 
demanded a favorable response within forty-eight hom*s. 
Mr. Chester Holcombe, formerly secretary of the American 
legation in Peking, was in Tokyo at the time, and had occa- 
sion to call upon a Cabinet Minister. "The Japanese, a 
friend of years' standing, gave free vent to his feelings, and 
shed tears like a child. Said he : 'If we only had three battle- 
ships we would declare war against Russia within twenty- 
four hours. We have but one, recently captiu-ed from 
China, and it will not be fit for service within six months, 
while the Czar has six here in our harbors. What can we 
do but submit to this insolent threat?'' ^ 

From that day Japan applied her energies to creating a 
modern armament, expending tens of millions on cruisers, 
battleships, and torpedo-boats; sending her brightest men 

1 Article "What of China?" in The OiUlook, February 13, 1904. 
148 



THE RUSSIA-JAPAN WAR 149 

to study the naval s^^stem of England and the military sys- 
tem of Germany; buying and learning to manufacture for 
herself the most highly improved rifles and cannon; drilling 
almost Hterally day and night, and fiercely anticipating the 
day when she could wreak vengeance on the treacherous 
Slav. 

The Japanese had substantial as well as sentimental 
reasons for action. They wanted Korea themselves. The 
territory of Japan proper, as we have seen, is only 148,756 
square miles in extent. For this limited territory there is 
a population of 317 to the square mile. Compare this with 
the United States, which has 28 to the square mile, and then 
consider that a large part of Japan is not adapted to agri- 
culture. If the population were distributed upon the till- 
able land there would be about 2,000 persons to each square 
mile. No other country in the world is in a worse predica- 
ment from the view-point of food-supply. "Less than 13,- 
000,000 acres are under cultivation, or about thirteen per 
cent of the extent of the country, while the arable area 
cannot possibly be increased by more than 10,500,000 acres, 
so that the per capita share of arable land is less than 
one-half of an acre, which is even below the corresponding 
rate in England and less than one-half of that in China." ^ 
The Japanese therefore needed room for colonization. What 
more natural than that they should look to Korea, which 
is almost within sight of their native land? A Japanese 
writer tersely summarized his country's position by saying 
that the people of Japan "must either die a saintly death 
in righteous starvation, or expand into the neighbor's back 
yard." He added: "Japan is not that much of a saint." ^ 

A steady emigration to Korea had been going on for a 
considerable period, and after the abrogation, in 1902, of 
the Korean law requiring passports for Japanese, the emi- 
gration greatly increased. Japanese in the crowded south- 
western part of the islands can cross the Korea Strait easier 
and cheaper than they can journey to northern Japan or 

1 K. Asakawa, The Russo-Japanese Conflict, pp. 5-7. 

2 Adachi Kinnosuke, in The World's Work, April, 1909. 



150 THE MASTERY OE THE FAR EAST 

Formosa. Living is cheaper than in Japan, and the soil 
is more feilile. It is not suiprising, therefore, that there 
were 40,000 Japanese in Korea prior to the outbreak of the 
war. By 1905, 65,000 had arrived, and others were coming 
at the rate of about 200 a day. 

This emigration created a Japanese interest in Korea 
which the islanders were not disposed to abandon to Rus- 
sians, who would be hostile to it. Unlike the Japanese 
emigrants to Manchuria and the Hawaiian Islands, most of 
whom are day-laborers, a large proportion of the Japanese 
in Korea were traders and shopkeepers. Many became 
permanent settlers and formed stable coromunities. There 
were Japanese settlements in all the treaty ports. Most of 
the larger towns in the interior also had Japanese quarters, 
some of them of considerable size, and with their own 
chambers of commerce, public schools, courts of justice, and 
police. When in 1906 the Korea Daily News, an anti- 
Japanese newspaper edited by an Englishman in Seoul, 
vehemently protested against the immigration of Japanese 
into Korea, the Japanese editor of the Yorodzu Ohoho, of 
Tokyo, caustically replied: "We humbly beg the Korea 
Daily News to teach us how to dispose of our surplus mil- 
lions. Our little country can hardly find room within its 
narrow houndsLvy to acconmiodate half a million people who 
increase year after year. Of course we cannot kill them 
wholesale. We cannot fill up the Sea of Japan to create 
dry land and settle them thereon. We would like to go 
to Kansas or anywhere except the lower world where we 
could escape starvation. But however hospitable America 
may be, she refuses to receive so many incomers all at once. 
We would very much like to cross over to Australia; but 
it is white men's Australia, and although that continent is 
many times larger than Korea and is very thinly populated, 
no colored people are admitted there. We know Korea is 
densely populated, but there the least resistance is offered 
and so we go there, just as EngHshmen went to America and 
Australia and elsewhere, forcing the natives to make room 
for them in days of yore. But if the Korea Daily News will 



THE RUSSIA-JAPAN WAR 151 

kindly use its powerful influence in our favor and persuade 
the Americans and Australians to receive any number of us, 
why, we should leave Korea alone and emigrate to those 
lands of plenty with joy in our hearts.'^ ^ 

Commercially, too, the Japanese felt that they needed 
Korea. As in England, increasing population and inability 
to increase agriculture turned the national energies to manu- 
facturing. Raw materials and markets, therefore, became 
questions of the first magnitude. Korea had both. Japan 
wanted the open door in Korea; Russia would close it. 
This was vital, for Japan depended largely on Korea for the 
additional food-suppUes that she needed. Before the war 
Japan drew from Korea more than half of the extra wheat 
that she required, nearly half of her importations of rice, 
and large quantities of beans and oil-cake. In return, Ja- 
pan sold Korea cotton yarn and textiles, tobacco, matches, 
coal and several other supplies. If we widen our field of 
observation to include Manchuria and north China, "the 
conclusion would seem tenable that, should the markets of 
east Asia be closed, Japan's national life would be para- 
lyzed, as her growing population would be largely deprived 
of its food and occupation. These markets, then, must be 
left as open as the circumstances permit, if Japan would 
exist as a growing nation." ^ 

At the outbreak of the Russia- Japan War the Japanese 
were controUing seventy-eight per cent of the tonnage en- 
gaged in shipping on the coast of Korea. Their 40,000 
fishermen dominated the fisheries, and their business men 
owned many of the banks and commercial houses, the former 
issuing a paper currency that was widely used. In July, 
1888, the Japanese completed a telegraph-line from Fusan 
to Seoul, and September 8, 1898, they obtained a conces- 
sion to build a railway between the two cities. With eager 
patriotism they quickly subscribed more than the 25,000,000 
yen required for the railway. The first rail was laid with 
imposing ceremonies August 4, 1901, and construction was 
so vigorously pushed that the line was opened for trafiic 

1 Editorial, September 25, 1906. 2 Asakawa, pp. 8 seq. 



152 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

December 1, 1904. This brought Seoul within fifty hours 
of Tokyo. The Russian Minister naively remarked that 
he did not think this railway would be a good thing for 
Korea. December 31; 1898, the Japanese had succeeded 
in obtaining another valuable concession, the railway from 
Seoul to its port, Chemulpo, twenty-six miles distant, and 
the line was opened for traffic July 8, 1900. August 23 of 
that year the Japanese secured a mining concession, Octo- 
ber 3 a fishing concession, December 8 a formal recognition 
of their rights in Fusan, and May 20, 1901, they began a 
settlement in Masampo to watch and checkmate the Rus- 
sians at that point. 

The Japanese closely watched for any revival of the lag- 
ging scheme of the French and Russians, referred to on a 
preceding page, to construct a railway from Wiju on the 
Yalu River to Seoul the capital; and they formed a plan 
to build a railway of their own from Seoul to Gensan, the 
excellent harbor on the northeast coast, and another line 
from Fusan to Masampo. Besides the railway and tele- 
graph lines already noted, the Japanese had obtained be- 
fore the war concessions for a coal-mine, four gold-mines, 
w^hale-fisheries, a postal service, several banks and eighteen 
schools. Every little while Japanese owners were found to 
have acquired a foothold at some additional point. For 
example, during my first visit in 1901, it developed that a 
Japanese had bought a small island near Chemulpo. The 
Emperor of Korea wanted to add to his palace grounds 
some property occupied by the Presbyterian Mission, and, 
in exchange, offered to give any tract of land outside the 
walls that the missionaries might select. They chose a 
plot on the road between the West Gate and the river. 
His Majesty agreed, but when he tried to buy the site for 
the mission he found that parts of it belonged to Japa- 
nese, who refused to sell. Altogether, Japanese interests in 
Korea had become extensive and the Japanese were just 
as averse to having them throttled by Russians as Amer- 
ican business men would be in similar circumstances. Nat- 
urally, therefore, they prepared to defend their interests. 



THE RUSSIA-JAPAN WAR 153 

Another reason for Japanese opposition to Russia involved 
the far-reaching question of the resistance of Asia to the 
encroachments of Europe. The yellow race was beginning 
to view with alarm and irritation the aggressions of the 
white race, which controlled vast and populous regions in 
Asia, and had unmistakable designs upon others. Man- 
churia was already Russian. The great province of Shan- 
tung, China, was virtually German, and if Korea also were 
to fall into the hands of the Slav, the consequences to Japan 
would be dire. A formidable barrier would be erected be- 
tween the Japanese and Chinese, and Japan would be shut 
into the narrow confines of her islands with no possibility 
of expansion. 

Not only freedom to expand but self-preservation was 
beheved to be involved. Said an intelligent Japanese: 
"Korea is an arrow pointed at the heart of Japan." A 
strait only 120 miles wide separates southern Korea from 
Japan, and Japan, too, at the vulnerable point of en- 
trance to the Inland Sea, the heart of the Sunrise King- 
dom. The Japanese therefore felt that the possession of 
Korea by any other Power would be a grave menace to their 
own safety. This is the key to Japan's pohcy in Korea. 
Mr. Holcombe once described a conversation that he had 
at that time with an influential Japanese: "The Japanese 
Minister — ^he was a member of the Cabinet — was greatly 
disturbed at the prospect for the future. He insisted that 
the action taken by Korea, under the guidance of China, 
would not save that Httle kingdom from attack and ab- 
sorption. Holding up one hand and separating the first 
and second fingers as widely as possible from the third and 
fourth, he said : ^ Here is the situation. Those four fingers 
represent the four great European Powers, Great Britain, 
Germany, France, and Russia. In the open space between 
them he Japan, China, and Korea.' Then with really dra- 
matic force, he added: ^Like the jaws of a huge vise, those 
fingers are slowly closing, and unless some supreme effort 
is made, they will certainly crush the national Hfe out of 
all three.'" 



154 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

We can therefore understand why Japan watched the 
aggressions of Russia with growing uneasiness and alarm. 
The Japanese Minister in St. Petersburg made repeated rep- 
resentations to the Russian Government. He was received 
with the utmost courtesy and was given suave reassurances; 
but Russian aggressions continued. The fortifications at 
Port Arthur were made more impregnable. The military 
force in Manchuria was constantly augmented. At last the 
Japanese felt that the time had come for more decisive pro- 
test, and July 28, 1903, Baron Komura, the Japanese Min- 
ister for Foreign Affairs, cabled to ]\lr. Kurino, the Japanese 
Minister in St. Petersburg: 

"The unconditioned and permanent occupation of Manchuria by 
Russia would create a state of things prejudicial to the security and 
interests of Japan. ... If Russia were estabHshed on the flank of 
Korea, it would be a constant menace to the separate existence of 
that Empire, or at least would make Russia the dominant Power in 
Korea. Korea is an important outpost in Japan's line of defense. . . . 
Moreover, the political as well as commercial and industrial interests 
and influence which Japan possesses in Korea are paramount over 
those of other Powers. These interests and influence, Japan, having 
regard to her own security, cannot consent to surrender to or share 
with another Power." 

This warning elicited only more evasive replies and un- 
kept promises. Whether the Russians beheved that the 
Japanese would not really fight, or whether they believed 
that if the Japanese did fight they could be easily defeated, 
it is difficult to tell. It is probable that with the character- 
istic arrogance of the Slav, the strength of the Japanese was 
contemptuously undervalued. At any rate, the Russians 
w^ent on their resolute way with absolute disregard of Japa- 
nese protests. Finally, it became apparent to the dullest 
observer that further negotiations would be imavailing. 
Februar}^ 6, 1904, Japan broke off diplomatic relations and 
withdrew her legation from St. Petersburg. February 7, 
the Japanese seized Masampo as a base of operations in 
southern Korea, and began landing troops. February 8, a 
Japanese squadron appeared off Chemulpo and sent word 



THE RUSSIA-JAPAN WAR 155 

to the commander of the Russian ships in the roadstead 
that if he did not come outside on the open sea he would 
be attacked in the harbor. Although the Russians had only- 
two comparatively small vessels, the cmiser Variag and the 
gunboat Korietz, and were hopelessly outclassed by the 
size and weight of the Japanese squadron, they proved once 
more that Russians are not cowards, and the next day they 
boldly steamed out to meet their antagonists. The battle 
that ensued was brief and sharp, and of course resulted in 
the destruction of the Russian vessels without injury to 
the Japanese. 

That night the main Japanese fleet under Admiral Togo 
suddenly appeared off Port Arthur, torpedoed two Russian 
battleships and a cruiser, and the next day (the 9th) in a 
general engagement disabled another battleship and four 
more cruisers. The Russian fleet was so badly crippled 
that it had to seek refuge in the harbor of Port Arthur, 
where it was blockaded by the Japanese, who had lost 
only two torpedo-boats. 

These victories gave Japan absolute command of the sea, 
and troops were poured into Chemulpo and other Korean 
ports without danger of interruption. Thus far there had 
been no formal declaration of war, but February 10 the 
Czar issued one, which recited the facts from the Russian 
view-point, and the next day the Japanese declaration was 
made. 

The war now proceeded with tragic swiftness and decisive- 
ness. Seoul was occupied with practically no opposition. 
The Japanese army marched northward, and the first land 
engagement was fought at Pyengyang, February 28. It 
was hardly more than a skirmish, for the Russians were 
not in heavy force, and were easily driven back. April 4 
General Kuroki occupied Wiju on the Korean side of the 
Yalu River, and May 1 the battle of the Yalu was fought. 
The victory of the Japanese was followed by their rapid 
advance into Manchuria. As Admiral Togo reported. May 
3, that he had ^^ bottled" up the harbor at Port Arthur, 
a Japanese division under General Oku landed at Pitsewo 



156 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

May 5, and another under General Nodzu appeared at 
Taku-shan the 19th. By the 14th the Japanese had thrown 
themselves across the South Manchuria Railway and cut 
off Port Arthur from communication with the Russian base 
in the north. May 23-26 the fierce battle of Nan-shan 
Hill gave General Oku possession of that formidable posi- 
tion, which commanded the approach to Port Arthur and 
enabled the Japanese to entrench themselves on the nar- 
row neck of the isthmus, so that the isolation of Port Arthur 
was complete. While the daring and skilful Kuroki, Oku, 
and Nodzu were doing their relentless will with the Rus- 
sian divisions which they encountered, the grim General 
Nogi began the formal investment of Port Arthur the mid- 
dle of June. 

The world, already startled by the dazzling succession of 
Japanese victories by land and sea, was appalled by the 
fierceness of the titanic struggle that followed. The Rus- 
sians had done eveiything that military science, prodigal 
expenditure, and an unlimited command of naked human 
strength could suggest to make the fortress impregnable. 
The natural position of Port Arthur is exceedingly strong, 
and more than a dozen hills, which were bare of trees, had 
steep sides, and commanded wide areas, had been crowned 
by no less than fifty-two forts and batteries. Whatever 
may be said of the incompetence of many of the Russian 
officers, no one can question the braveiy of the Russian 
soldiers who were shut up in that fortress. Ignorant and 
rather stupid peasants they have been called, but they 
fought with obstinate courage in defense of their position. 
For nearly seven months they withstood the onset of their 
foes. It is true that their fortress was supposed to be 
impregnable, and that the garrison was large, well provi- 
sioned, and amply equipped. But there was something 
uncanny about the fighting of the Japanese. They were 
not only indifferent to death, but they eagerly coveted the 
honor and privilege of dying for their Emperor. They 
threw themselves against those frowning battlements with 
entire disregard of the hail of shot and shell which the 



THE RUSSIA-JAPAN WAR 157 

Russian infantry and artillery poured upon them. They 
made repeated assaults in which whole brigades were an- 
nihilated; but other brigades took their places undis- 
mayed; and renewed the fighting. Every possible resource 
of modern discovery and invention was called into requisi- 
tion, and the results of peaceful study and industry were 
employed to intensify the horrors of human slaughter. 
Electricity for the first time became an effective force 
in war. Search-lights, star-rockets, and parachute-torches 
swept the approaches with such brilliancy that darkness 
was no longer a cover for night assaults. Cannon were 
raised, aimed, fired, and lowered by electrical devices. 
Barbed-wire entanglements were charged with electric 
cmrents which killed every foe who touched them. An 
electric railway ran inside the long arc of forts, so that 
reinforcements could be rushed to any point of attack. 
Headquarters were telephone central offices, with lines ra- 
diating to every part of the field. No furiously galloping 
staff-officers were required to transmit orders and receive 
information; the telephone did in a few seconds what the 
fastest horse would have required hours to do even if he 
were not shot. When the Japanese captured 203 Metre 
Hill, telephone messages from its summit directed the fire 
of heavy siege-guns in protected places, so that the gun- 
ners made untenable a city and harbor which they could 
not see. The Japanese fleet added to the pandemonium 
of ruin. Battleships cannot wisely take as many risks as 
land batteries, for it requires not only several million dol- 
lars but several years to build a battleship, while a few 
guns in a land battery are easily replaced. Admiral Togo 
solved this problem by ha\dng tiny torpedo-boats, which 
the Russians found it difficult to see and almost impossible 
to hit, lie several miles off shore, and by wireless dispatches 
give the range and a report on each shot to gimners on 
the battleships lying safely out of reach of the Russian 
forts. 

Day and night for awful months the bombardment con- 
tinued. Day and night the inexorable brigades zigzagged 



158 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

their trenches closer and closer to the forts, and charged 
against stone walls, hesivy cannon, and machine-guns. 
Finally, flesh and blood could endure no more. The last 
dispatch of the Russian commander-in-chief, dated January 
1, described the Japanese assault of December 31, and 
added: '^We shall be obliged to capitulate, but everything 
is in the hands of God. We have suffered fearful losses. 
Great Sovereign, pardon us. We have done everything 
humanly possible. Judge us, but be merciful. Nearly 
eleven months of uninterrupted struggles have exhausted 
us. Only one-quarter of the garrison is alive, and of this 
number the majority are sick, and, being obliged to act on 
the defensive, without even short intervals for repose, are 
worn to shadows.'^ January 2, 1905, the great fortress, 
which had been isolated from all support since May 14, sur- 
rendered. 

General Stoessel has been severely criticised for surren- 
dering even then. His own countrymen in Russia bitterly 
reproached him, and he went home to face a court martial. 
It was said that one of his subordinate generals. General 
Kondrachenko, was the real inspiration of the Russian 
troops, and that when he was killed at the battle of 203 
Metre Hill, General Stoessel lost not only heart but ability 
to continue the fighting. His reply did not help either his 
military skill or his reputation for veracity. He declared 
on his return to Moscow that of his 680 officers 317 were 
killed and all the rest wounded; that his garrison had been 
reduced from 17,000 to 4,000, including wounded; that his 
'^ provisions were almost entirely exhausted"; that he ^' could 
hold out no longer for want of food"; and that he '^ could 
not reply to the enemy's fire for want of ammunition." 
These statements do not harmonize with General Nogi's 
official report that he captured 1,323 Russian officers who 
were neither sick nor wounded; 25,011 sound and uninjured 
soldiers, sailors, and marines; 690,000 rations of flour, 666,- 
000 rations of hard bread, 80,000 rations of split barley, 
175,000 rations of tinned beef, 11,200 rations of corn-meal, 
1,125 rations of rice, 33,000 pounds of sugar, and 583,000 



THE RUSSIA-JAPAX WAR 159 

pounds of salt — a sujficient supply to have maintained the 
entire garrison for at least two months longer: 528 cannon 
that were in good condition, an ample supply of small arms, 
4,773 rounds for cannon of 6-inch caliber and upward, 
62,640 rounds for guns of 3 to e-inch caliber, and 138,821 
roimds for quick-firers, small field-pieces, and Maxims, 
5,436,240 rounds of small-arm ammunition, 33 tons of 
gunpowder, 1,588 mines, grenades, etc., and "an enormous 
amount of material and appliances intended for use in the 
further strengthening of the forts. '^ 

One is forced to conclude either that General Stoessel 
did not know what he had, perhaps deceived by frightened 
or corrupt subordinates, or that he misrepresented the facts 
in order to justify his surrender. Doctor Morrison, the 
famous correspondent of the London Times, who inspected 
Port Arthur soon after its fall, wrote that "no more dis- 
creditable surrender has been recorded in histor}\'' Mr. 
George Kennan, an equally careful and judicious observer, 
while calling attention to the glaring discrepancies which 
have been noted between the statements of General Stoessel 
and the report of General Nogi, and while convinced that 
the fortress could have held out a month, and possibly two 
months longer, nevertheless does not agree with Doctor 
Morrison that the surrender was unnecessary and discredi- 
table, but that on the contrary the "situation, when Gen- 
eral Stoessel surrendered, w^as hopeless; but he should not 
have allowed it to become hopeless. ^^ ^ 

It is always easy, in the quiet and leisure of later days, 
to find mistakes and blimders in military operations. No 
siege in history has ever been characterized by faultless 
judgment on both sides. The din and tumult and strain 
of battle day and night for half a year are apt to warp 
the mind and get on the nerves. I visited Port Arthur in 
1909 and stood upon the hills which had been crowned by 
the Russian forts. The destruction which was apparent 
even then, four years after the fall of the fortress, was ap- 
palling. The forts were a chaos of ruin. Summits and 

» Article in The Outlook, September 30, 1905. 



IGO THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

slopes were thickly pitted with holes made by bursting shells. 
Those hilltops must have been belching volcanoes of death, 
and it is difficult to understand how the Russian soldiers 
could have stayed on them as long as they did. The fact 
that the fiercest; most daring, and most determined fighters 
the world has ever known, equipped with every conceivable 
weapon and appliance of scientific warfare, had to fight 
for about six months at a cost of 45,000 killed and wounded 
men before they could capture that fortress eloquently 
testifies to the bravery, fortitude, and resourcefulness of its 
defenders. Whether any other white soldiers would have 
held out longer, I doubt. The Japanese certainly did not 
despise their foes, for they have built a monument in memory 
of the 15,000 Russian dead, and General Nogi wrote to the 
Japanese Minister of War a few days after his victory: "The 
feeling I have at this moment is solely one of anguish and 
humiliation that I should have expended so many lives, so 
much ammunition, and such a long time in the accom- 
jolishment of this task.'' 

Meantime, heavy fighting had been going on farther 
north. The Japanese army, now consolidated under Field- 
Marshal Oyama, met the Russian army under General 
Kuropatkin at Liao-yang, and a great battle was fought 
August 24 to September 4. In the number of men engaged, 
the extent of country fought over, the courage and stub- 
bom determination manifested on both sides, and in the 
duration of the conflict, the battle of Liao-yang must be 
counted one of the great battles of history. But Russian 
courage and obstinacy had to yield at last before the de- 
termined onset of a foe which united equal courage and 
obstinacy with superior generalship and utter recklessness 
of death. 

The Russian army sullenly retreated northward, pressed 
and harassed at every step by the victorious Japanese, but 
skilfully handled by Kuropatkin. At the Shaho River he 
iDoldly took the aggressive in a desperate effort to check the 
Japanese advance. Ten days (October 11-21) the tide of 




■Iil«>w 



x:..j 



^^ 



'^^mmr 



' ^4m 







THE RUSSIA-JAPAN WAR 161 

battle surged back and forth, now favoring one side and 
then the other, till heavy rains stopped the weary comba- 
tants. Neither Russians nor Japanese could claim a de- 
cisive victory, but the Russians realized that they had not 
beaten back their oncoming foe. Both armies were well- 
nigh exhausted, and, intrenching themselves, they went 
into rude winter quarters, the men living in hastily made 
dugouts along the river. There were nimierous small en- 
gagements, one of them. General Gripenberg's brave but 
fruitless attempt (January 25-29) to turn the wing of the 
Japanese army, calling 150,000 men into action, and en- 
taHing a Russian loss of 12,000 men, the Japanese loss being 
5,000. After that a period of comparative quiet ensued. 
The Manchurian winter is bitterly cold, and the Japanese 
suffered much as they were not so accustomed as the Rus- 
sians to such low temperatures. 

Well rested, and reinforced by General Nogi's army, 
which had been liberated by the fall of Port Arthur, the 
Japanese did not wait for the spring, which they knew 
would convert those loamy plains into unfathomable mud. 
Amid the cold storms of late February the memorable battle 
of Mukden was begun. General Kuropatkin had replaced 
Admiral Alexeieff as Russian commander-in-chief in Man- 
churia, October 20, and he had concentrated all his re- 
sources for this supreme struggle which he well knew must 
come. He was a brave and gallant officer, and after the 
war he wrote a book which discusses, with remarkable frank- 
ness for a Russian, the causes of his country's defeat. 
March 1, and therefore while the battle was still in progress, 
he was superseded by General Linevitch, who was believed 
to be a more aggressive commander. The rigors of winter 
intensified the usual horrors of warfare. What little rest 
and sleep the constant fighting permitted the troops had 
to snatch where adequate shelter could not be obtained, 
and wounded men, whose lives might have been saved in 
ordinary weather conditions, soon froze to death. Again, 
as in every preceding battle, the Japanese were victorious. 



102 THE MASTERY OF THE FAll EAST 

It is easy for the armchair critic at a cosey fireside to point 
out what the Russian generals might have done that they 
did not do. No one is perfect, not even a critic, and in the 
tumult of battle errors of judgment are likely to occur even 
with the best of generals and the bravest of soldiers. But 
impartial history- will undoubtedly record that an army 
that could withstand Japanese ferocity and skill for seven- 
teen days probably did all that any other army would or 
could have done. 

Mukden was not only the greatest battle of the war, but 
it was one of the greatest battles of history. Before the 
European War of 1914, what other battle had engaged a 
million men, on a fighting-line nearly a hundred miles long, 
and fought for seventeen successive da^^s (February 24- 
March 12)? The Japanese victoiy ended the important 
land fighting of the war. Both armies had put forth their 
supreme effort. The Russians could do no more without 
time to recoup their losses and establish themselves at a 
new base. The Japanese, holding undisputed possession of 
all Korea and lower Manchuria, and exhausted by their 
terrific struggles, deemed it miwise to push the fighting 
farther northward into a region which was becoming in- 
conveniently distant from their base of supplies and where 
the Russians could fight another battle to better advan- 
tage. Both armies, therefore, remained in comparative 
inaction while the last great drama of the war was being 
developed on the ocean. 

Russia had assembled all of her available ships that 
could be spared from home, and sent them to the Far East 
under command of Admiral Rojestvensky for a final effort 
to regain her lost gromid. The fleet steamed out of the 
Baltic in the latter part of October, followed by high hopes 
that it would be able to turn the fortmies of war which had 
been running so heavily against them. The state of mind 
of the Russian officers and sailors themselves was pathetically 
illustrated by their firing upon some innocent fishing-boats 
one night before they had passed out of the safe waters of 
the North Sea. Officers who could mistake such boats at 



THE RUSSIA-JAPAN WAR 163 

such a place for Japanese torpedo-boats must have been 
drunk, or else in such pitiable terror as Kipling describes 
in The Destroyers : 

"Panic that shells the drifting spar, 
Loud waste with none to check; 
Mad fear that rakes a scornful star 
Or sweeps a consort's deck." 

After this untoward incident, which excited the mingled 
ridicule and indignation of the world, the Russian fleet 
piu^ued its voyage to the Far East. As it entered the 
North Pacific; the tension not only of the Russians but of 
the watching world was great. Not a syllable had been 
heard regarding the whereabouts of the Japanese fleet. 
Rumor had located it at a dozen different places, and the 
Russians had been for weeks in nightly expectation of at- 
tack. The absolute secrec}^ which the Japanese preserved 
is a striking illustration of the loyalty of the Japanese people. 
Although tens of thousands of Japanese must have known 
that Admiral Togo^s fleet was lying among the islands off 
the southern coast of Korea, near Masampo, although the 
sound of guns in target practice could be heard by hundreds 
of villages, and although scores of war correspondents and 
other curious Europeans and Americans were scattered 
among the treaty ports as near to the scene of expected 
operations as they could get, not a single Japanese disclosed 
the secret of his country, and the rigid censorship made it 
impossible for any one else to send a telltale letter or tele- 
gram out of the country. 

Japanese methods were further illustrated by the plans 
for locating the Russian fleet as it approached. There being 
three entrances to the Japan Sea by which Vladivostok 
might be approached, Korea, Tsugaru, and La Perouse 
Straits, Rojestvensky assumed that Togo would divide his 
fleet into three squadrons so that the Russian fleet would 
find only one-third of the Japanese strength in whichever 
channel he might choose. As the Korea Strait is the 
one farthest from Vladivostok, the most easily and safely 



1G4 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

navigated in the foggy month of May, the channel which 
affords the most direct route by avoiding the journey 
around Japan, and as it is the natural approach in ordi- 
nary circumstances, Rojestvensky concluded that its very 
advantages would lead Togo to believe that it would not 
])e chosen, and that it might, therefore, be the safest. 
Togo, with almost uncanny prescience, foresaw this reason- 
ing, and kept his fleet together at this point. It was a 
bold decision, staking everything on a theory; but it proved 
to be somid. 

Elaborate precautions were taken for reporting the Rus- 
sian fleet as soon as possible. The coast of Japan was 
lined with signal stations on promontories, islands, and 
mountain-tops. A wide expanse of sea was divided into 
small numbered squares. Swift torpedo-boats and scout- 
ships equipped with wireless telegraph cruised far out at 
sea, watching night and day. When, at five o'clock Satur- 
day, May 27, the scoutship Shinano-maru sent a wireless 
message reading: "Enemy's fleet sighted in square 203" 
(near Quelpart Island), Togo was instantly ready to move. 
While the Russians, still ignorant of the whereabouts of the 
enemy, steamed at full speed into the strait, already exult- 
ing in the thought that its destination at Vladivostok was 
so near, and that most of the Japanese warships were 
guarding the two northern channels hundreds of miles away, 
Admiral Togo's warships suddenly appeared around the 
head of an island, and the battle was on. European ex- 
perts had credited the Russian fleet with faithful target 
practice and straight shooting; but either the Russians had 
been given credit which they did not merit, or official cor- 
ruption had sent them out with inferior guns and ammuni- 
tion. Both conjectures are probably correct. At any rate, 
the Japanese fire was far more effective than the Russian. 
'^ At a distance of four miles," a Russian lieutenant lamented 
to Mr. George Kennan, "the Japanese gunners seemed to 
hit us with almost every shot that they fired. Our men had 
not had practice enough to shoot accurately at such ranges. 
We hoped that we might be able to crowd Togo's ships up 



THE RUSSIA-JAPAN WAR 165 

toward the land on the Japan side of the strait, and so get 
nearer to them; but they were too fast for us. They 
circled around ahead of us, and knocked us to pieces at such 
long ranges that we were barely able to see them through 
the mist." Never was naval victory more overwhelming 
than that which the Japanese achieved. The firing com- 
menced at 2:08 p. m., and within thirty-seven minutes six 
of the eight Russian battleships were so badly injured that 
Togo stated in his official report that ^^at 2:45 p. m. the re- 
sult of the battle had been decided." The remainder of the 
time was spent by the Japanese in hunting down and sink- 
ing or capturing the scattered and fleeing Russian vessels. 
Within thirty hours from the firing of the first shot Rojest- 
vensky was a wounded prisoner, and of a Russian fleet of 
eight battleships, three armored cruisers, three protected 
cruisers, three coast-defense armor-clads, and twenty-one 
auxiliary cruisers, destroyers, transports, and special-service 
ships — ^thirty-eight in all — all but four were sunk, beached, 
or captured, and even of the four that escaped only one, 
the auxiliary cruiser Almaz, succeeded in reaching Vladivos- 
tok, the others finding refuge in Manila Bay. This annihila- 
tion of the Russian fleet cost the Japanese only three tor- 
pedo-boats sunk, three cruisers temporarily disabled, 116 
officers and men killed, and 538 wounded. 



CHAPTER X 
CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF RUSSIAN DEFEAT 

The world was at first amazed by the sweeping victory 
of the Japanese. It had seemed almost foolhardy for a 
nation of about 50,000,000 of people, with small financial 
resom'ces and a limited territory of 149,000 square miles, 
to attack a nation of 150,000,000 of people, supported by 
the enormous wealth of 8,650,000 square miles of territory. 
But it soon appeared that the contestants were not so un- 
equally matched as such comparisons might suggest. I 
have discussed in another chapter the mihtary efficiency of 
the Japanese, the thoroughness with which they prepared 
for the war, and the zeal and determination with which the 
entire nation supported it. 

Remoteness from the zone of hostilities was a special dis- 
advantage to the Russians. The scene of fighting was so 
close to Japan that she could concentrate her whole military 
and naval force upon her enemy. Russia, on the other 
hand, was more than five thousand miles from the zone of 
hostihties, and after her naval force in the Far East was shut 
up in Port Arthur, she was dependent upon a single-track 
railway, poorly built, inadequately equipped, and with an 
awkward and time-destroying break at Lake Baikal. More- 
over, Russia did not dare send her entire army and navy to 
the Far East and thus leave her home territory unprotected 
from the warlike nations with whose jealousies she always 
had to reckon. Japan's available fleet for a war so near 
her doors was actually stronger than Russia's. She had, 
too, a great advantage in convenient ports to coal, clean, 
and repair her ships. Admiral Togo could not have fought 
the battle of Korea Strait with the guns which had seen 
such hard service before Port Arthur, for the life of a big 
gun is only about a hundred roimds, even if it is not hit 

166 



CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF RUSSIAN DEFEAT 167 

by the enemy. But it was easy to regun his ships from 
home navy-yards close at hand. The famous but some- 
what ilHterate Confederate General Forrest, when asked 
for the secret of successful warfare, replied: '^Git thar fust 
with the mostest men." This was precisely what Japan 
was able to do, and what Russia was not able to do. 

The causes of Russia's defeat, however, lay not only in 
the superior military spirit and efficienc}^ of her foe but in 
her own blunders and deficiencies. The serene self-con- 
fidence of the Russian, his contemptuous under-valuation of 
his enemy, and his '^heaven-born" faith in Russia's divine 
mission, as well as official graft and corruption, combined 
to prevent a preparation which the character of the foe 
required. "The unpreparedness of Russia" is the burden 
of General Kuropatkin's Military and Political Memoirs, 
published after the war. He declared that the general staff 
estimated the total number of available Japanese troops 
at only a little more than 400,000, and that it ignored im- 
portant inforaiation that had been sent by Russian officers 
who had been in Japan. 

The leadership in the field was little if any above medi- 
ocrity. The war was a graveyard for the reputation of 
Russian generals and admirals; not one emerged as a com- 
mander of the first rank, and several proved to be grossly 
incompetent. I have referred elsewhere to General Stoes- 
seFs course at Port Arthur. General Kuropatkin showed 
great ability in extricating his defeated army from the 
clutches of the victorious Japanese, and perhaps he did as 
well as could have been expected, considering all that he 
had to contend with in his own army and government, as 
well as from the Japanese. But his abilities were those of a 
McClellan rather than of a Grant or Sheridan — strong in 
organizing and retreating, but lacking in genius for aggres- 
sive operations. General Linevitch was regarded by his 
friends as a general who might have retrieved the Russian 
fortimes; but he attained independent command only 
three months and a haK before negotiations for peace 
stopped the fighting. Admiral Alexeieff was the com- 



1G8 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

inander-in-chief by land and sea at the outbreak of the war, 
and is chiefly remembered for his colossal arrogance and 
his amazing lack of comprehension of the crisis wliich he 
was largely instrumental in precipitating. Poor Rojestven- 
sky ! is all that one can say of the commander of the Baltic 
Fleet, and that is a pathetic thing to say of an admiral in a 
historic battle. General Kondrachenko and Admiral Ma- 
karoff were probably the most capable and brilliant of the 
Russian commanders, although their tragic end clothed 
their reputations with a glamour which the survivors of the 
war probably envied. General Kondrachenko having met 
his death in one of the mine explosions at Port Arthur 
and Admiral Makaroff having been blown up with his flag- 
ship, the Petropavlovsk, April 13, 1904, only five weeks after 
he assumed command of the fleet. 

The Japanese, on the other hand, developed a galaxy 
of military stars of the first magnitude. Field-Marshal 
Oyama, the commander-in-chief in the field, increased an 
already great reputation. His chief of staff, General Ko- 
dama, educated in Germany, minister of war in 1900-1902, 
vice-chief of the general staff at the outbreak of the war, 
and then chief of staff of the armies in Manchuria, was a 
strategist of phenomenal brilHancy, and his genius planned 
the battles which the aggressive Oyama carried out. An 
EngHshman has called him ^Hhe Kitchener of Japan,'* 
which is a high compliment to Kitchener. Lieutenant 
General Fukushima, assistant chief of staff, was a worthy 
associate. Four separate armies executed the plans which 
were framed by these experts. Each army was led by a 
lieutenant general to whom the mihtary critics of Europe 
and America unhesitatingly accord the first rank: Kuroki, 
Nodzu, Oku, and Nogi. In the navy. Vice- Admirals Uriu, 
Kamimura, Dewa, and Kataoka bulk large in the world's 
respect, while Togo is universally regarded as one of the 
greatest naval strategists and fighters in all history. 

The Russian leadership lacked not only first-class ability 
but continuity. The commander-in-chief was changed three 
times during that short war. Admiral Alexeieff held su- 



CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF RUSSIAN DEFEAT 169 

preme command from the beginning until the middle of 
October; 1904; then General Kuropatkin was commander- 
in-chief till March 1, 1905, and after that and mitil the close 
of the war General Linevitch. Corps commanders were 
constantly being changed, and General Kuropatkin has told 
the world in his Memoirs an unhappy stoiy of the dissen- 
sions which existed among them, and between them and 
their commanders-in-chief. Against a united foe, the 
Russian conduct of the war was marked by constant squab- 
bles between the civil and military authorities, between the 
officers of the army and navy, and between different ele- 
ments of the population at home. 

Innimierable stories were in circulation regarding not only 
the administrative dishonesty but the personal character 
of the Russian officers. One might ignore rumors, but one 
cannot ignore such direct testimony as that of Major Louis 
L. Seaman, of the American army, who was in Manchuria 
and who says that "arriving trains that should have been 
crowded with men and munitions of war brought each a 
full complement of the demi-monde and vodka. The thou- 
sands of these creatures and the tens of thousands of cases 
of vodka that passed over the Siberian Railway in place of 
food and equipments must have horrified even the gentle 
Verestchagin, familiar as he was with war in its most brutal 
and bestial aspects. Wine, women, and song were certainly 
the imdoing of Russia. Sodom and Gomorrah — ^the cur- 
rent synonyms of Port Arthur and Vladivostok in the 
Orient — ^were temples of virtue in comparison to the de- 
bauchery, Hcentiousness, flagrant immoralities, and openly 
flaimted vice recently practised in those unhappy cities.^' ^ 

Mr. F. A. McKenzie, who visited Port Arthm^ both before 
and after the siege, gives similar testimony: "Life seemed 
one endless round of champagne, of songs, of dances, of 
entertainments, and of gaiet}^ There was money for every 
man with influence; contracts with great profits attached 
were to be had; posts were to be filled and perquisites were 

1 Address before the Association of Military and Naval Surgeons of the 
United States, St. Louis, October 12, 1904. 



170 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

to be claimed. Why should the officer trouble about drill 
and discipline when there were ladies to entertain, wine to 
be drunk; and good fellowship to be emphasized? The 
army of parasites and hawks had gathered. There were the 
Jewish contractors, sleek, ingratiating, and hateful, making 
good fortunes, soon to be paid for by the blood of Russian 
peasants. There were the ladies of the half-world, sum- 
moned from three continents. . . . Then came the guns — 
no play salute this!''^ 

Contrast these bacchanalian revels with the rigid dis- 
cipline of the Japanese army. The Japanese are far from 
being a moral people, but in their camps there were no such 
orgies of drunkenness and lust as those which disgraced 
the camps of their foes. Perhaps it would be too much to 
assert that Japanese officers are more chaste than Russian; 
but they certainly are more abstemious when on duty in 
time of war. While the Russian camps were notorious for 
wine and women,' and carloads of liquor and prostitutes 
took railway space that was urgently needed for troops 
and munitions, the Japanese generals enforced a Spartan 
severity of conduct. 

The Russian rank and file were almost wholly lacking in 
the enthusiasm which so conspicuously characterized the 
Japanese. The Russian peasant soldier is undoubtedly 
brave, his fighting showed that; but he is rather dull, heavy 
in mind as well as body, loyal indeed to his country and re- 
ligion, but often hating his government and officers. He felt 
little personal interest in the war, and fought because he 
was ordered to do so without half imderstanding what he 
was fighting for. General Kuropatkin wrote: "Out of 
compassion we permitted soldiers on the line to carry off 
their wounded comrades. Many companies literally melted 
away from this cause; there were many instances when 
perfectly sound men went to the rear under the pretext of 
carrying off the wounded, and when six, eight, and even 
ten men carried one wounded man. . . . The intellectual 
backwardness of our soldiers was a great disadvantage to 

1 The Unveiled East, pp. 102-103. 



CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF RUSSIAN DEFEAT 171 

us, because war now requires far more intelligence and 
initiative on the part of the individual soldier than ever 
before. Our men fought heroically in compact masses or 
in fairly close formation, but few of our soldiers were capa- 
ble of fighting intelligently as individuals. In this respect 
the Japanese were much superior to us. Their non-com- 
missioned officers were far better developed intellectually 
than ours, and among such officers, as well as among many 
of the common soldiers whom we took as prisoners, we found 
diaries which showed not only good education, but knowl- 
edge of what was happening and intelligent comprehension 
of the military problems to be solved." 

As these statements were made by the Russian command- 
ing general, they cannot be attributed to anti-Russian 
prejudice. Even if we allow for the rankle of defeat in his 
mind, it is clear that, whatever may be said for the stubborn 
courage of the Russian troops as a whole, especially when 
defending a position, there was no such esprit de corps as 
there was in the Japanese army. The apathy of the army 
was equalled only by the apathy of the nation at home. 
General Kuropatkin quotes, with approval, an article by 
Mr. A. Bilderling in the Russian Invalid, in 1906, in which 
the latter said: '^In a conflict between two peoples, the 
things of most importance are not material resources but 
moral strength, exaltation of spirit, and patriotism. . . . 
Every soldier (Japanese) knew that the whole nation stood 
behind him. With us, on the other hand, the war was un- 
popular from the very beginning. Soldiers were hastily 
put into railway trains, and when, after a journey that 
lasted a month, they alighted in Manchuria, they did not 
know in what country they were, nor whom they were to 
fight, nor what the war was about. Even our higher com- 
manders went to the front imwillingly and from a mere 
sense of duty." General Kuropatkin adds : " Out of the tens 
of thousands of students who were then living in idleness, 
only a handful volunteered, while in Japan sons of the most 
distinguished citizens were strivmg for places in the ranks. 
. . . Leaders of the revolutionary party strove with ex- 



172 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

traordiiiaiy energy to multiply our chances of failure. Per- 
sons who sincerely loved their country gave aid to Russia's 
enemies by expressing the opinion in the press that the 
war was irrational, and by criticising the mistakes of the 
government that had failed to prevent it. Soldiers of the 
reserves, when called into active service, were furnished by 
the anti-government party with proclamations intended to 
prejudice them against their officers, and similar procla- 
mations were sent to the army in Manchuria. Firm in 
spirit though Russians might be, the indifference of one 
class of the population and the seditious incitement of 
another could hardly fail to have upon many of them an 
influence that was not favorable to the successful prosecu- 
tion of war." The Russian commander-in-chief is surely 
a competent witness. 

The effects of the war were far-reaching. Russia's pres- 
tige suffered an eclipse; Japan's blazed forth with new 
splendor. For the first time in modern history an Asiatic 
nation had become a world-power of the first magnitude. 
Western nations, which had been accustomed to do their 
pleasure in the Far East, and to count on nothing more 
than a futile opposition, suddenly found that the day of 
their unchecked aggressions had passed. 

Eveiywhere Asia plucked up courage. It had regarded 
Russia as the most powerful of the white nations and Japan 
as a comparatively small island empire of no special impor- 
tance. When, therefore, Asia saw the most dreaded of 
Western nations so easily humbled by little Japan, people 
on the mainland began askiag one another: '^Why should 
we longer submit to this arrogant white man? If the 
Japanese can defeat the Russians, why cannot Chinese and 
East Indians drive out the foreigners who are troubhng 
them?" Excited Asia did not understand why not, and 
became vainglorious. The White Peril suddenly appeared 
less menacing. China awaked to a new sense of unity and 
power. Anti-British feeling in India was enormously in- 
tensified. Even Turkey and Persia felt the thrill of Asiatic 
triumph over Europe. Foreigners in the Far East testified 



CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF RUSSIAN DEFEAT 173 

to the general change in attitude. A French diplomat 
wrote in the Deutsche Revue: "All the Asiatic peoples now 
recognize that the axis of the Asiatic world has been shifted. 
They had resigned themselves to their fate. The Japanese 
successes struck this enervated world like a cannon stroke, 
and Siam, which is led by British sentiment; India^ which 
is under England's dominion; the Malay Islands, Java, and 
Sumatra, the Anamites of Anam, Tonquin, and Cochin- 
China, pricked up their ears. Five hundred East Indians 
at once set out to attend the lectures at the Japanese uni- 
versities. Siam concluded a compact of amity, of whose 
provisions Europe has remained ignorant, with Japan. In 
Singapore, Batavia, Surabaya, Saigon, Hanoi, and Hai- 
phong the Chinese secret societies have redoubled their pre- 
cautionary measures and their activity. China has opened 
its doors to Japanese traders, Japanese officials, and Japa- 
nese mihtary instructors. In French Indo-China it was 
found necessary to prohibit Chinese newspapers and to or- 
der the imprisonment of Chinese and Japanese spies." ^ 

The Hungarian traveller Arminius Vaminbery wrote in 
the same periodical on the reaction of the Russian defeat 
upon the Moslem world and its menace to the West. He 
reminded Western readers that ever since the days of Ivan 
the Terrible, Mussulmans had regarded Russia as the arch- 
enemy of their faith, a scourge of Allah whom it was vain 
to resist. The reports of Japanese victories "were as 
startling as thunder in a clear sky to the Moslem nations 
of Asia. Shame is felt at the fear inspired by a country 
which has proved to be hollow and impotent, but still more 
at the defeats which the Moslem nations have sustained 
at the hands of the so greatly overrated giant, and different 
writers have come to the conclusion that owing to the ex- 
periences in Manchuria the Moslems may look forward to 
a more hopeful future." 

The attitude of Western nations toward Russia's progress 
in the Far East presented some interesting contrasts. 
Governments observed the laws of neutrality, but the press 

^ Quoted in the American monthly Review of Reviews, August, 1905. 



171 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

revealed the sympathies of the people. The prevailing 
sentiment in continental Europe was pro-Russian, fear of 
the international consequences of an Asiatic victory over- 
coming hereditary dislike of the Slav. British sentiment 
was more friendly to Japan. England discerned clearly 
enough that if the Slav gained his coveted mastery in the 
north Pacific he would have an access of power and pres- 
tige that would affect the balance in both European and 
Asiatic international relations and seriously intensify the 
menace of Russian aggression on her Indian frontier and her 
possessions in China. This was the chief consideration 
that led to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of January 30, 
1902. This alliance, as may be imagined, was not received 
with joy in Russia, but it encouraged the jubilant Japanese 
to prepare with new zest for the war which all saw was fast 
becoming inevitable. 

American feeling was decidedly pro-Japanese. Russia 
appeared to be surprised and hurt by the outspoken friendli- 
ness of Americans for Japan. They protested that white 
men should stand together against yellow men, and Chris- 
tians against '' heathens, '' reminded us of Russian sympathy 
during the American Civil War, conjured up visions of sub- 
stantial benefits which would accrue from Russian victory, 
and persistently sought to arouse feeling against Japan by 
appealing to self-interest and race prejudice. Said Count 
Cassini, the Russian ambassador to the United States: "It 
is not a thoughtless statement that were Japan to obtain 
supreme control in Manchuria the dominant military spirit 
of the Japanese would lead them to organize the Chinese 
into a modern army of such proportions that Europe and 
America would stand aghast at this menace to their peace 
and well-being. With a population of more than 430,000,- 
000 to draw from, an army could be raised that, co-operating 
with Japan, might with a reasonable show of confidence 
defy the civilized world. You in America should pause to 
contemplate the result of a union of the two great Mongol 
races — one progressive, aggressive, alert, overambitious, 
dreaming dreams of standing dominant not only in the 



CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF RUSSIAN DEFEAT 175 

Far East but in the councils of the Powers; the other imi- 
tative, easily influenced, ready if not anxious to have a 
stronger hand mould its flaccid character into whatever 
shape would be best suited to carry out a scheme of na- 
tional aggrandizement. You of America, as well as we of 
Europe, have this to confront. It is not Russia alone that 
the danger threatens, but the whole family of Caucasian 
nations." ^ 

Count Cassini proceeded to plead for American sym- 
pathy with Russia on the ground that, if Russia should be 
victorious, she would discriminate in commercial matters 
"in favor of the United States'' because ^'Manchuria would 
require many things that Russia could not supply," while 
"in this country [the United States] are made the very 
materials that would find a ready sale among the people 
of the province." " On the one hand [with Japan victorious] 
stands Manchuria open to the commerce of the world — 
Japan in competition with the United States, a manufac- 
turer of Japan capable of making the goods needed in Man- 
churia, and of making them cheaper than America can 
make them, and having the additional advantage of short 
all-water freight rates. On the other hand stands Man- 
churia imder Russian control, mth a friendly hand ex- 
tended to the United States, and Japan given no encour- 
agement. To my mind the conclusion is obvious." 

The conclusion was indeed "obvious," but it was not, as 
Count Cassini imagined, that the United States should s}tii- 
pathize with Russia for the ignoble purpose of securing a 
share of the spoil. Rather was it obvious that in principle 
Russia stood for a closed Manchuria, with only such con- 
sideration for other nations as might serve her own inter- 
ests, and that it would be safer for Americans to take their 
chances with Japan. They knew too much about auto- 
cratic Russia to have any confidence that it would accord 
any greater freedom of intercourse than it suited her pur- 
pose to give. In spite of their color, geographical location, 
and nominal faith, the Russian autocrats were at a farther 

^ Article in the North American Review, May, 1904, pp. 686-687. 



176 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

remove from the spirit of western Europe and the United 
States than were some of the peoples of eastern Asia. It is 
true that when the Russian rules an unciviHzed people he 
sometimes benefits them. He is ruthless and bloody in 
conquering, and he introduces an order which is better 
than the one it displaces; but any praise given to Russia 
on this account should take into consideration the standards 
of comparison. The Asiatics in the regions mled by Russia 
were under such hopelessly bad governments that any 
change at all was for the better. 

Making due allowance for the custom of all warring gov- 
ernments to call high heaven to witness to the rectitude of 
their intentions, Americans felt that Count Katsura, then 
Prime Minister of Japan, had the better of the argument 
when he replied to the Russian plea as follows: ''The ob- 
ject of the present war, on the part of Japan, is the security 
of the Empire and the permanent peace of the East. Russia 
is, and if allowed to be will continue to be, the great dis- 
turber of the peace of the East, and there can be no per- 
manent peace until she is put in bonds which she cannot 
break. The position of Japan is closely analogous to that 
of ancient Greece in her contest with Persia; a contest for 
the security of Greece and the permanent peace of Europe. 
Japan is Greece and Russia is Persia. The war is not a 
war for the supremacy of race over race, or of religion over 
religion. With differences of race or religion it has nothing 
to do; and it is carried on in the interests of justice, human- 
ity, and the commerce and civilization of the world.' ^^ 

The triumph of Japan marked the beginning of a new 
epoch not only for Japan, but for Korea, China, and proba- 
bly also for the world. It changed the whole complexion 
of Far Eastern politics. It gave Japan an acknowledged 
place among world-powers of the first rank. It seriously 
impaired Russian prestige everj^where. It meant the re- 
construction of Korea under Japanese leadership; and it 
dissipated the fear that the vast populations of the Far 

^ From an interview with the Reverend William Imbrie, D.D., of Tokyo, 
which he was authorized to publish in the United States. 



CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF RUSSIAN DEFEAT 177 

East, numbering more than one-third of the human race, 
might fall under the baleful influence of Russian absolutism. 
I have no disposition to exalt Japan at the expense of Rus- 
sia. But since Japan happened to be the nation to resist 
the Russian advance in the Far East, one may call attention 
to the historical fact that Japan had made more real progress 
in five decades of contact with the Western world than 
Russia had made in five centuries. Japan was far from 
perfect, but it was better for the interests of mankind that 
Korea and lower Manchuria should develop under Japa- 
nese influence than under Russian. 

In a later chapter I must regretfully record a strengthen- 
ing of autocratic tendencies in Japan, and in another vol- 
ume I have described the remarkable revolution in Russia;^ 
but contrasting the two nations as they stood with their 
governments, methods, and ideals in the first decade of this 
century, it was painfully clear that the influence of Russia 
in the Far East was a menace not only to northern Asia 
but to the world, which is profoundly concerned by the 
forces which dominate these rising nations. It is hardly 
conceivable that a triumphant Russian autocracy would 
have permitted China to become a republic, and when that 
autocracy itself fell, in 1917, the sudden collapse of Russian 
rule in eastern Asia would have plunged China and Korea 
into chaos. Japan would then have been compelled to 
undertake the task of restoring order, but with the loss of 
at least -a dozen years of time, during which many condi- 
tions would have become worse and the difficulties greatly 
multiplied. A free, orderly, and enlightened Russia would 
be a blessing not only to the Far East, but to the world. 
But there was no such Russia ia 1905, and one grieves to 
say that while the Russia of to-day is nominally free, it is 
neither orderly nor enlightened, for Russia has dethroned 
the Czar only to enthrone fanatical Bolsheviki Socialists, 
who cannot even guide their own country aright, to say 
nothing of other countries. 

^ Russia in Transformation. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE PORTSMOUTH TREATY AND THE ANGLO- 
JAPANESE CONVENTION 

The annihilation of the Russian fleet brought the war to 
its cuknination. Each side was now ready to consider 
terms of peace. Russia had lost all the ships that she could 
prudently send to the Far East. Her army had been dis- 
astrously defeated; and the single track Trans-Siberian 
Railway could not transport enough troops and munitions 
for adequate reinforcements. Russia, too, was feeling the 
pressure of financial necessity. Her natural resources were 
great, but they were unable to stand the strain of continuing 
the struggle. Her foreign loans on accoimt of the war 
aggregated $335,000,000; her internal loans were $100,000,- 
000; and her outstanding paper-money issue was $600,000,- 
000. The war had cost Russia nearly if not quite $1,500,- 
000,000. Moreover, the government was facing a revolu- 
tion of ominous portent, and needed freedom from foreign 
complications in order that it might be able to turn its 
attention to a home situation which was menacing the 
stabiHty of the throne. The common people had never 
regarded the war with favor. They deemed it a war of the 
grand ducal party, but its sorrows had pressed heavily 
upon them. Every village had lost husbands and fathers 
and sons, and murmurs of discontent were becoming loud 
and insistent. 

Japan had even more cogent reasons for peace. The war 
map was altogether in her favor, but a continuance of the 
struggle would have iavolved grave risk. Russia had Httle 
more to lose. Her home territory was not involved. Her 
army in Manchuria included many Poles, Finns, and revolu- 
tionists whom the governing autocrats were quite willing 
to have killed off so that they could not return home to 
increase the popular discontent. While the Russians had 

178 



THE PORTSMOUTH TREATY 179 

no navy left worth mentioning, they had 559,000 soldiers in 
Manchuria and the Primorsk or Pacific Province. Sixty- 
four thousand of these were in hospitals, but the remainder 
constituted a formidable army which was inured to war, 
and whose new and capable commander. General Linevitch, 
was eager to avenge the defeats of his predecessor, General 
Kuropatkin. Russia was undoubtedly in a bad way, but 
if she were forced to go on, her superior resources in men 
and money, her food-supplies in the flour-mills and stock- 
yards at Harbin, "that great stomach of the war,^^ and her 
unbroken control of the Trans-Siberian Railway from Si- 
beria and Russia would have enabled her in time to pull 
herself together and wage a long war more easily than the 
Japanese. The latter had defeated the Russians in every 
battle, but they had done so at fearful cost. Liao-yang and 
Mukden were fiercely contested battles, and the slopes of 
Port Arthur had been turned into Japanese shambles by 
the valor of their Russian defenders. Japan's victory had 
not been so easily won as to make the thought of try- 
ing it again particularly attractive. Mr. F. A. McKenzie, 
the well-known war correspondent, said that there was re- 
markable agreement among his colleagues with the differ- 
ent armies that the Japanese in striking their great blow 
at Mukden practically exhausted their strength,^ and George 
Kennan declared that when peace negotiations were begun 
Russia had 100,000 more troops in Manchuria than Japan, 
and that the Japanese General Staff did not believe that 
it could defeat General Linevitch and carry the war north- 
ward without a reinforcement, which it would be difficult 
for Japan to supply, and which the government had neither 
the arms nor the money to equip. In these circumstances 
it would not have been a light thing to face further battles 
with a still formidable and determined enemy which had 
learned much by ex-perience, and which was willing to try 
the fortunes of another contest. 
There were, too, possible comphcations with other na- 

1 The Unveiled East, pp. 105-106. 

« Article in The OiUlo»k, December 30, 1911. 



180 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

tioiis which might diminish the results of the victory already 
obtained. The Japanese did not forget that they had cap- 
tured Port Arthur once before^ in the war with China in 
1895, and that they had been compelled to relinquish it 
by a combination of European Powers. It was not proba- 
ble that Europe would again interfere, as it had learned to 
respect the prowess of the Japanese, and had been led to fear 
the reflex effect of interference. But European diplomacy 
was believed to be prolific in unexpected schemes. It ap- 
peared prudent, therefore, to accept the substantial results 
that Russia was ready to acloiowledge rather than to incur 
the risk of lessening them by continuing the war under con- 
ditions that might be more favorable to Russia. 

Japan hesitated to bring upon herself the world odium 
that would have resulted from a continuance of the war 
which all men now thought should stop. Mankind had 
become sensitive to bloodshed and, knowing nothing of 
the greater horrors of the coming European War, was ap- 
palled by the carnage in Manchuria. Humanity virtually 
said to Japan: "After having obtained your avowed ob- 
jects in the war, you should be satisfied.'^ The youngest 
of present-day Powers, Japan is not indifferent to the 
opinion of other nations, and this was deemed a good oppor- 
timity to convince the world that Japan could be as wise in 
peace as she was efficient in war. Indemnity did not ap- 
peal to the Japanese as an .adequate reason for rejecting 
terms of peace. While not unmindful of financial advan- 
tages, they can hardly be called a mercenaiy people. The 
Samurai, who form the bulk of the fighting class, are chival- 
rous in spirit and with a high sense of personal honor. 
They wUl fight to the death for their Emperor, but they 
would consider money an ignoble thing to die for. 

The cost of continuing the war would have been enor- 
mous. Japan had stood the fiinancial strain unexpectedly 
well, but she could not have stood it much longer. The 
patriotism of the Japanese is equal to more exacting de- 
mands than that of most other peoples, and they were still 
willing to fight. But taxes had trebled since the outbreak 



THE PORTSMOUTH TREATY 181 

of hostilities; and had become a grievous burden for a poor 
people. The budget presented to the Diet of 1906 by the 
Minister of Finance showed that the war, including interest 
on the war debt, had cost Japan approximately yen 2,204,- 
000,000, and the interest charges were nearly twice the 
revenues of the government a decade before. Bad weather 
had seriously lessened the rice-crop, and the price of food 
had reached alarming proportions. Distress would stare 
the nation in the face if the war continued. It is true that 
Koretiyo Takahashi, financial commissioner of Japan in 
London, is said to have told an enterprising newspaper re- 
porter that Japan had $175,000,000 untouched in England, 
Germany, and the United States, and that if peace had not 
been concluded his government could have raised an addi- 
tional internal loan of $100,000,000 to prosecute the war.^ 
But this pronouncement was regarded as purely '^diplomatic." 
Whatever desperation might have prompted, Japan was 
plainly near the end of her resources. The financial as well 
as the political and humanitarian interests of the world 
were strongly for peace, and they had the advantage of 
being in a position to press their views. Each of the con- 
tending nations was compelled to borrow, and bankers did 
not care to lend more for the continuance of a conflict 
which might end in the bankruptcy of one or both of the 
debtors, and which had already disturbed the commercial 
and monetary interests of the world. 

Other governments added their influence to the counsels 
for peace. France and Germany, who were more or less 
openly in sympathy with the Slav, saw that the time had 
come to stop, and so advised Russia. The German Em- 
peror and the Russian Czar had a mysterious meeting on 
the former's private yacht. Sovereigns do not confer in 
the presence of newspaper reporters; but no one, except 
those who were compelled for diplomatic reasons to do so, 
denied that the subject of the conference was the war, and 
that the German war lord gave some sound advice to his 
weaker friend; for every intelligent man in Christendom 

^ Interview in the New York Tribune, September 1, 1905. 



182 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

probably had more accurate knowledge as to the actual 
progress of events than the unhappy Czar, who knew only 
what the court cabal permitted to reach him. Great Britain, 
meantime, was counselling Japan to make peace. The 
British had no interest in the prosecution of the conflict 
merely for a money or territorial consideration after the 
real ends of the war had been attained, and their special 
relations to Japan through the Anglo-Japanese Convention 
of 1902 might prove embarrassing if the strife increased in 
bitterness. This convention was designed to strengthen 
each of the contracting parties against Russia as their 
common danger. It provided that if either Japan or Eng- 
land, in defense of their respective Korean interests, should 
become involved in war with any other Power, the other 
party to the contract ''will maintain a strict neutrality and 
use its efforts to prevent other Powers from joining in hos- 
tilities against its ally,'' but that if any other Power or 
Powers do so join in hostilities, then the other contracting 
party will join its ally." Thereupon France and Russia 
promptly made an agreement to stand together. 

If it had not been for these compacts the Russia-Japan 
War might have set half the world on fire. More than one 
nation might have helped Russia if it had not been for the 
knowledge that such help would have brought Great 
Britain and France into the melee. The cabinets of Chris- 
endom had been nervously apprehensive from the beginning 
that the interference of China on Japan's behalf might force 
France to keep her treaty promise to fight with Russia in 
the event of two nations uniting against her. Then Eng- 
land's treaty with Japan would have embroiled her, and 
Europe as well as Asia would have been in tumult. The 
Dogger Bank incident in the North Sea, in which Rojest- 
vensky's fleet fired on some British fishing-smacks, illus- 
trated the tension everywhere, and the imminence of war 
at that time between Great Britain and Russia made the 
rest of the world extremely nervous. The whole situation 
was full of dynamite, and everybody wanted the conflict 
to end before any more of it exploded. 



THE PORTSMOUTH TREATY 183 

In these circumstances it was apparent to the whole 
world that the strategic moment to discuss terms of peace 
had arrived. The only question was : Who should take the 
initiative ? Pride kept each of the combatants from making 
overtures. The victorious Japanese felt that any advances 
on their part would be construed as a confession of inabihty 
to fight longer, and the defeated Russians felt that to sue 
for peace would be to drink the dregs of the cup of humilia- 
tion. No European nation was in a position to act, as the 
leading governments were understood to be in sympathy 
with one or the other of the combatants. In these circum- 
stances all signs pointed to the United States, whose popular 
sentiment was known to be rather favorable to Japan, but 
whose government had carefully maintained neutrality, 
and was credited with a larger measure of disinterestedness 
than any of the European governments. While everybody 
felt that somebody ought to move, and each was waiting 
for some one else. President Roosevelt broke through diplo- 
matic formalities and addressed an identical note to the 
Japanese and Russian Governments, June 7, 1905: "The 
President feels that the time has come, when, in the inter- 
est of all mankind, he must endeavor to see if it is not pos- 
sible to bring to an end the terrible and lamentable conflict 
now being waged. . . . The President accordingly urges 
the Russian and Japanese Governments, not only for their 
own sakes but in the interest of the whole civilized world, 
to open direct negotiations for peace with each other. , , J^ 

Japan promptly expressed its willingness to enter into 
negotiations for peace. Russia also answered affirmatively 
but in language whose sincerity was suspected by Japan. 
However the difficulties were overcome and plenipotenti- 
aries were appointed. Japan designated as her represen- 
tatives Baron Jutaro Komura, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
and Mr. Kogoro Takahira, Minister to the United States. 
Russia was tardy, as usual, finally appointing M. Nelidov 
and M. Muraviev, who were soon replaced by Count Ser- 
gius Witte, former Privy Coimcillor and Minister of Finance, 
and Baron Romanovitch Rosen, who had just been ap- 



184 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

pointed Ambassador to the United States. These selections 
were favorably regarded by the world. Baron Komura 
was educated in America, at Harvard University, and dur- 
ing his long diplomatic career had been Minister to Korea, 
China, and Russia. Count Witte, though cordially hated 
by the Grand Ducal party in Russia, was a man respected 
not only for ability but for honesty. Baron Rosen had 
served eight years as Secretary of the Russian Embassy in 
Washington, and also as Secretary of Legation and Minister 
in Tokyo. Physically, the Japanese and Russian plenipo- 
tentiaries presented a contrast not unlike that typified by 
their respective nations. The Russian Witte was of huge 
bulk, over six feet in height and over two hundred pounds 
in weight, while the Japanese Komura was but little over 
five feet in height and weighing only about one hundred 
pounds. But events proved that in alertness and strength 
of intellect the small Japanese was no whit the inferior of 
the ponderous Russian. After some dickering America 
was accepted by both parties as the place of meeting, and 
the plenipotentiaries began their sessions August 8 at the 
government nav;y"-yard near Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 
There was intense curiosity on the part of the Russians, 
as well as on the part of the world, to know what terms the 
Japanese would impose. Baron Komura submitted twelve 
in writing at an early session. The next day Count Witte 
submitted the Russian reply, protesting against certain of 
the terms. Baron Komura suavely proposed that the dis- 
cussion of the disputed terms be temporarily deferred, 
and that an effort be made to ascertain on how many of 
the others agreement could be reached. The articles were 
then taken up in this way, and it soon became apparent 
that the Russians would accept eight of the Japanese terms, 
but that the remaining four would be rejected. The Japa- 
nese insisted, but the Russians remained stubborn, and a 
deadlock resulted. It looked for a time as if the negotia- 
tions would end in failure. The cables between Ports- 
mouth and the governments concerned were kept hot with 
messages, but neither side would yield. 



THE PORTSMOUTH TREATY 185 

Then President Roosevelt intervened. From a diplo- 
matic view-point it was rather an extraordinary thing to 
do. But he seldom allowed convention to limit his course, 
and his independent position made it possible for him to do 
without suspicion of interested motives what no European 
monarch could have done. What cabled communications 
he had with St. Petersburg, Tokyo, and other capitals were 
carefully guarded from the pubHc; but the remarks of the 
German Emperor after the peace conference had closed 
indicated that there was considerable consultation. At 
any rate, there were undoubted signs that the real centre 
of negotiations was transferred from Portsmouth to Presi- 
dent Roosevelt's summer home at Oyster Ba}^ Baron 
Rosen quietly slipped away from Portsmouth and had a 
long conference with the President, returning as quietly to 
Portsmouth. The channel of communication with the 
Japanese was Baron Kaneko, a former member of the 
Japanese Cabinet, who was known to be high in the con- 
fidence of the Mikado and Elder Statesmen, and who had 
been for some time in the United States. There had been 
much speculation regarding his presence in America through- 
out the war. While he was affable with every one he had 
the proverbial reticence of the Japanese in important 
matters, and newspaper men never could learn anything 
from him. Although he was not one of the peace plenipo- 
tentiaries, he visited President Roosevelt no less than six 
times during the sessions of the Portsmouth conference. 
The Baron suavely told newspaper reporters that his visits 
to the President were purely personal, as he and Mr. Roose- 
velt had been friends since their association as fellow 
students at Harvard University, and that he had not sent 
a single cable message to the Mikado or to Prince Ito 
since the conference opened. Mr. Sato, the spokesman for 
the Japanese plenipotentiaries, added his disclaimer to that 
of Baron Kaneko, observing that if the President of the 
United States had any communications to make, he would 
naturally have made them through official channels. This 
sounded plausible, but the public was not convinced. The 



186 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Japanese are past masters in the art of secrecy, and there 
were various ways by which the astute, self-effacing Baron 
could have transmitted his information to the right parties. 
At any rate it was apparent that the plenipotentiaries at 
Portsmouth were simply marking time whOe the main 
issue was being settled somewhere else. 

It looked for a time as if nothing could be accomplished. 
The Japanese insisted upon their terms, and the Russians 
declared that to concede the four in question would destroy 
their prestige in both Europe and Asia, and make serious 
trouble at home, and that it was their inflexible determina- 
tion to continue the war rather than yield to such humiliating 
conditions. August 29, to the surprise and relief of the 
world, Baron Komura withdrew the three Japanese de- 
mands relating to indemnity, Russia's naval power in the 
Far East, and the interned ships, and proposed a division 
of the Island of Saghalien. The overjoyed Russians in- 
stantly assented, and the long suspense was over. As 
Count Witte returned to his hotel a throng of excited news- 
paper men pressed about him and called out: ^^ Does Russia 
pay an indemnity?" "Fsls un sou, et la moitie de Sa- 
khaline'^ (Not a sou and the half of Saghalien) was the 
jubilant reply. The formal draft of the treaty was made 
by Mr. Henry Willard Dennison, the American who was 
for many years the legal adviser of Japan, and Mr. Frederick 
de Martens, who sustained similar relation to the Russian 
Foreign Office. September 5, in the presence of aU the 
envoys and their suites, and a few invited Aznericans, 
Count Witte and Baron Komura affixed their signatures. 
The profound silence during that supreme moment was then 
broken by a battery salute of nineteen guns, the ringing of 
the church-bells in Portsmouth, and the screaming of all 
the steam-whistles in the harbor. Mutual fehcitations 
were exchanged by the plenipotentiaries while telegraph 
and cable sped the tidings to every part of the world. 
Copies of the treaty were transmitted to the governments 
in Tokyo and St. Petersburg, and were formally signed by 
both monarchs October 14. 



THE PORTSMOUTH TREATY 187 

The salient points of this treaty were as follows: Japan 
ratified Russia's lease of the trunk-line railway across 
Manchuria to Vladivostok. Russia recognized Japanese 
preponderating influence in Korea, agreed to respect the 
administrative entity of Manchuria and to limit her claim 
to pohce the Manchurian Railway, surrendered the Chinese 
Eastern Railway from Kwan-cheng-tze Pass to Port 
Arthur, and acknowledged Japan's title to Port Arthur and 
Dalny and to that portion of Saghahen south of the 50th 
parallel of latitude. Both nations agreed to evacuate Man- 
churia and to uphold the open-door policy in it, and each 
was to reimburse the other for the care of imprisoned sol- 
diers, sailors, and citizens. 

The first thought of the world was that the Japanese had 
yielded their groimd, and surprise was general. Reflection, 
however, showed that Japan had taken the prudent course. 
She had obtained all that she had fought for, and more. 
There would have been no war at all if Russia at the outset 
had conceded Japan's demands regarding Korea and Man- 
churia, By the terms of peace Japan not only eliminated 
Russia from Korea and southern Manchuria, but obtained 
for herself Dalny, Port Arthur, and the Chinese Eastern 
Railway. It is doubtful whether the Japanese really ex- 
pected to obtain more than they did. The surrender of the 
Russian ships that had taken refuge in neutral ports, and 
the limitation of Russia's naval power in the Far East were 
not reasonable demands. It was incredible that Russia 
should submit to dictation as to how many ships she should 
have in her own ports. The demand for Saghalien had a 
better basis, but the compromise agreed upon was compara- 
tively easy. Japan had ceded it to Russia in 1875 when 
its resources were little understood and its relation to 
future complications had not been foreseen. It is a more 
considerable island than is commonly supposed, being 670 
miles long, and having an area of about 25,000 square 
miles, nearly that of Ireland. It has extensive forests, 
vast beds of coal and iron ore, rich deposits of oil, and its 
coasts and rivers teem with salmon, herring, and other 



188 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

food-fish. Its location, twenty-five miles from the main- 
land, and thirty miles from Japan, gives it large strategic 
value. The Japanese were not thinking so much of com- 
mercial and military advantages in 1875 as they were in 
1905, and they were determined that so strategic a base 
should no longer remain in the possession of a rival power. 
They had little zeal for the northern part, which is bleak, 
rocky, and ice-bound. It is of some use to Russia on ac- 
count of its relation to the mouth of the Amur River, and 
as a convict colony, but it is of little value for anything else. 
Japan secured the southern haK whose climate is made 
more salubrious by the Japan Current, which includes the 
coal, iron, and oil deposits, which has the fisheries that 
Japan needs both for revenue and for food, and which has 
vital relations to the naval control of La Perouse Strait and 
the Japan Sea. With this half of the island and both sides 
of the Korea Strait, Russia cannot get in or out of Vladi- 
vostok without the consent of Japan. 

As for indemnity, Japan really got tne equivalent of an 
enormous one in Korea, Daltiy, Port Arthur, the Chinese 
Eastern Railway, valuable fisheries, the control of southern 
Manchuria, and prestige in China. Her wildest dreams 
never compassed so much at the outbreak of the war. Of 
course she at first pressed for indemnity. It is the custom 
in all bargaining, particularly in the Orient, to ask more than 
one expects to get. Americans often do this, and Orientals 
always do. The method is dear to the Eastern mind as it 
leaves room for large apparent concessions without making 
any real sacrifice. The Japanese of the higher class are 
less disposed to haggle over a trade than most Asiatics, 
but they were far too shrewd to begin a diplomatic nego- 
tiation with their minimum terms. By stoutly insisting 
for a time on what they never really expected to get, they 
obtained the important things which they were actually 
after. 

Another reason, which probably had as much influence 
with Japan as any other, perhaps as much as all others 
combined, was the secret completion of another treaty with 



THE PORTSMOUTH TREATY 189 

Great Britain. The Anglo-Japanese Convention of Jan- 
uary 30, 1902, had greatly increased Japan's prestige, and 
had assured her of the powerful assistance of England in 
the event of any other Power coming to the assistance of 
Russia. This convention was for five years and therefore 
had two years more to run. Both Japan and England felt 
that the time had come for a closer and more effective alli- 
ance, and without waiting for the expiration of the treaty, 
a new one was concluded for a further period of ten years, 
wdth the agreement, as in the former case, that even then 
it should continue in force until a year after one of the 
contracting parties should notify the other of its desire 
to end it. The object of this momentous convention, 
which was signed August 12, 1905, was stated in the pre- 
amble to be "(A) Consolidation and the maintenance of 
general peace in the regions of eastern Asia and India; 
(B) The preservation of the conmion interests of all the 
Powers in China by insuring the independence and integ- 
rity of the Chinese Empire and the principle of equal op- 
portunities for the commerce and industry of all nations in 
China; (C) The maintenance of the territorial rights of the 
high contracting parties in the regions of eastern Asia and 
of India, and the defense of their special interests in the 
said regions." Article II provided that ^4f by reason of an 
unprovoked attack or aggressive action, wherever arising, 
on the part of any other Power or Powers, either con- 
tractor be involved in war in defense of its territorial rights 
or special interests mentioned in the preamble, the other 
contractor shall at once come to the assistance of its ally, 
and both parties will conduct war in common and make 
peace in mutual agreement with any Power or Powers in- 
volved in such war." Article III recognized Japan's "para- 
mount political, military, and economic interests in Korea," 
and Article IV Great Britain's "special interests in all that 
concerns the security of the Indian frontier," and Article 
VI declared that "in the matter of the present war between 
Japan and Russia, Great Britain will continue to maintain 
strict neutrahty unless another Power or Powers join in 



190 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

hostilities against Japan, in which case Great Britain will 
come to the assistance of Japan, will conduct war in com- 
mon, and will make peace in mutual agreement with Japan.'* 
This treaty was far-reaching in its significance. It meant 
peace in eastern Asia, relief of the British from anxiety 
regarding Russian aggressions upon their Indian frontier, 
and relief of the Japanese from anxiety regarding further 
Russian advance in Manchuria. It virtually guaranteed 
the integrity of China against further aggressions by Russia, 
Germany, and France, and kept open the door for the 
world's trade with that populous country. More than this, 
it was tantamount to an offensive and defensive alliance 
between the greatest naval Power of Europe and the great- 
est militaiy Power of Asia, thus securing to Japan the posi- 
tion that she had won, giving her a free hand in the develop- 
ment of Korea, and insuring that if other Powers should 
make war against either Great Britain or Japan they would 
be confronted by both Powers. As soon as the Emperor of 
Germany learned of this treaty, he saw its bearing upon 
some of his cherished plans, and he began making a hurried 
effort to form a league between Germany, France, and 
Russia. These governments shared his perturbation, but 
the Russians had their hands full with their own affairs, and 
France had recently entered into more amicable relations 
with England and was not disposed to run the risk of at- 
tack from such a near and powerful neighbor for the sake 
of pulling German chestnuts in China out of the fire. The 
ascendancy of Japan in Far Eastern affairs was thus firmly 
established for a decade, at least. Russia was to go no 
farther toward Korea, and to keep her hands off of China 
and India, while England and Japan were to be free to 
consolidate their holdings and to extend their influence. 
This new treaty Japan was quietly negotiating with Great 
Britain while the peace conference was in progress, and as 
soon as it was consummated, the Japanese plenipotentiaries 
at Portsmouth, without referring to it of course, "mag- 
nanimously" withdrew the demands that Russia found so 
objectionable. The main things that Japan wanted were 



THE PORTSMOUTH TREATY 191 

Korea, a free field in lower Manchuria, and relief from the 
menace of Russian aggression. The first two were secured 
by her victory in the field, and the third by her treaty with 
England. The rest was a mere matter of bargaining in 
which Japan could afford to be generous. 

In these circumstances the alleged sadness of the Japa- 
nese envoys and the real exultation of the Russians when 
Japan finally withdrew her non-essential demands appear 
rather amusing. The Russians were so relieved to save 
anything from the wreck that they were jubilantly talkative 
to the newspaper correspondents, while the Japanese main- 
tained their impenetrable reserve. As the Russians loudly 
declared that they had won their point, the reporters natu- 
rally reflected their view. But as time passed it became 
more and more evident that the real victor}^ was with Japan. 
She had waged with unprecedented success a colossal war 
with the Power that had been deemed one of the mightiest 
in the world. With the minor exception of the almost un- 
inhabited and uninhabitable northern part of an island, 
she had kept all the fruits of victory, conciliated Russia by 
saving her pride, gained enormous prestige, and won the 
favor of mankind by appearing to be magnanimous to a 
defeated rival. That the Russians could be jubilant over 
the result only suggests the worse things that they had 
feared. 

The two nations accepted the peace quite differently. 
The Russians appeared greatly delighted, and the Czar in 
an imperial rescript of October 10 extolled Count Witters 
success in obtaining "rightful concessions" and "an all- 
advantageous peace." He telegraphed to General Line- 
\dtch in Manchuria that "Japan yielded all our conditions, 
but asked for the return of Saghahen occupied by Japanese 
troops"; that "my glorious army is now greater in num- 
bers and stronger than before, not only prepared to ward 
off the enemy but also to inflict upon him an important 
defeat"; but that "my duty to my conscience and to the 
people intrusted to me by God commands me not again 
to put to the test the valor of Russian men so dear to my 



192 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

heart and ... I have therefore accepted the preliminary 
peace conditions." This is an example of '^ saving face" 
which a Chinese mandarin might envy. 

The Japanese received the news in a different spirit. 
The Mikado, indeed, in an imperial rescript October 16 
wrote of having secured '^ peace with glory/' and that 
^^ after twenty months of war the position of the Empire 
has been strengthened, and the interests of the country 
have been advanced. '^ But the people were not so well 
satisfied. Intoxicated by the success that had been achieved 
on the battle-field, they had set their hearts on the whole of 
Saghalien and on an indemnity which would reimburse 
them for the heavy cost of the w^ar. They were not in a 
position to know, as their leaders were, of the difficulties 
which the continuance of the war would have involved. 
Their burning patriotism did^ not take account of risks. 
They did not know of the security which the renewed 
Anglo- Japanese Convention gave them. They feared that 
the terms of peace did not guarantee immunity from 
further Russian aggressions, and that as soon as Russia 
could double-track the Trans-Siberian Railway, mobilize 
a larger army, and build a new fleet, the w^ar would have to 
be fought over again against a strengthened foe. When, 
therefore, the extras announced to the waiting throngs 
that the Japanese plenipotentiaries had waived three of the 
terms of peace, and had compromised on a fourth, there 
was a storm of protest which found voice in great mass- 
meetings and in many of the leading newspapers, including 
all but one of the influential journals of Tokyo. The boast- 
ing of the Russians over the terms of peace intensified the 
popular wrath. The daily press reprinted a statement of 
Count Witte to a newspaper correspondent, in which he 
was quoted as saying: '^I would not pay a sou of indem- 
nity. . . . The Japanese wanted the Chinese Eastern 
Railway as far north as Harbin. I gave it to them only to 
Chang-chun. . . . They asked an absurd price for the 
island of SaghaHen. They get half the island; they get no 
money.'' The Japanese also read the swaggering despatch 



THE PORTSMOUTH TREATY 193 

which the excited Witte sent to the Czar : ^^ I have the honor 
to report to your Majesty that Japan has agreed to your 
demands concerning the conditions of peace, and that con- 
sequently peace will be estabhshed, thanks to your wise 
and firm decision, and in strict conformity with the instruc- 
tions of your Majesty. Russia will remain in the Far East 
the great power which she hitherto has been, and will be 
forever.'' 

It was an exhibition of bluster which caused smiles in 
other countries, but it added fuel to the fire of Japanese 
protest. Prominent men shared the popular indignation. 
The newspapers headed their accounts with such captions 
as ^^Disgraceful Surrender," "Humiliating Peace." The 
Mikado was flooded with petitions to refuse to sign the 
treaty and to continue the war, and there were loud demands 
that the Ministry resign. If the government had pubhshed 
not only the actual terms of peace but the provisions of the 
Anglo-Japanese treaty the popular exasperation would 
have been allayed, to some extent at least. Instead, the 
government tried to crush the discontent. The Japanese 
are the most loyal people in the world, but there are limits 
even to their acquiescence, and for a few days there were 
stormy times in the leading cities, especially in Tokyo. 
Riots broke out. The offices of newspapers that had sup- 
ported the government were wrecked, and considerable 
other property was destroyed. Prince Ito was threatened. 
The police were unable to quell the disorder and troops 
had to be called out. They ended the tumult in short 
order, but many rioters were killed or wounded. 

It would be wTong to infer too much from these distur- 
bances. Certainly neither Europe nor America can regard 
such outbreaks of popular violence as a sign of inferior 
civilization. The newspapers were filled for months with 
accounts of mobs in Russia. Mobs have repeatedly risen 
in England, and America probably sees as many as any 
civilized coimtry in the world. It was quite natural that 
the settlem^ent of a great war, in which popular feeling had 
been stirred to the utmost, should not be satisfactory to 



194 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

cveiybody even in Japan. As time passed the Japanese 
gradually took the view that the sober second thought of 
the world has taken, namely, that the terms of peace were 
on the whole creditable to Japan, and quite favorable to her. 



CHAPTER XII 
JAPANESE ANNEXATION OF KOREA 

The Japanese found themselves in Korea in the course 
of the war with Russia in circumstances roughly analogous 
to those in which the Americans fomid themselves in the 
Philippine Islands in the war with Spain. Military neces- 
sity had brought them in, and once in, civil as well as mili- 
tary obligation confronted them. The country was in a 
chaotic condition, the people were sullen or openly hostile, 
and confusion and disorganization were on every hand. 
The Japanese lost no time in grappling with the situation. 

Their first thought was to take the direction of foreign 
affairs into their own hands, but to leave internal affairs 
in the hands of the Korean authorities, with Japanese resi- 
dent '^advisers" to give needed counsel. The Japanese 
Minister to Korea frankly said: "Japan is confronted by a 
most difficult problem — to maintain the fiction of Korean 
independence while practically establishing a protectorate, 
and yet to avoid assuming the responsibilities of a govern- 
ing power. '^ 

August 19 (1904), articles one and two, and August 22 
article three of an '^ Agreement'' between Japan and Korea 
were concluded at Seoul which stipulated that "the Korean 
Government shall engage a Japanese subject recommended 
by the Japanese Government as Financial Adviser to the 
Korean Government"; that "the Korean Government 
shaU engage a foreigner recommended by the Japanese 
Government as Diplomatic Adviser to the Foreign Office"; 
and that "the Korean Government shall consult the Japa- 
nese Government before concluding treaties and conventions 
with foreign Powers, and also in dealing with other im- 
portant diplomatic affairs such as grants of concessions to 
or contracts with foreigners." This, plan did not work 

195 



196 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

satisfactorily. The Japanese came to the conclusion that 
what their Minister had called "the problem" was too 
"difficult" to be solved by such half-way measures. They 
therefore began to take matters more decisively into their 
own hands. Prince Ito arrived with credentials as Resi- 
dent General, whose powers disconcerted the Korean Gov- 
ernment not a little, and its dismay was increased when 
the proposal was made that the Prince should occupy the 
imperial audience-chamber while receiving the return call 
of the Emperor. His Majesty resorted to the customary 
Oriental device of feigning illness, and five days passed be- 
fore the interview could be satisfactorily arranged. 

A draft of a treaty was soon presented which included 
the appointment of a Japanese administrator to govern 
Korea under the Emperor; the appointment of Japanese 
administrators at all treaty ports; the transfer of Korean 
diplomatic affairs to Tokyo; and an agreement to make no 
arrangements with other Powers without the consent of Ja- 
pan. The Emperor protested, and his Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, Pakchisun, implored him not to affront the spirits 
of his ancestors by yielding such prerogatives of his imperial 
house. But his other ministers, influenced either by fear 
or corruption, urged him to consent. Finally, the feeble 
and frightened monarch signed the treaty. This is officially 
known as the Convention of November 17, 1905, although 
it was actually signed at half past one o'clock of the morning 
of the 18th. January 29, 1906, the Emperor issued an 
appeal to the nations in which he declared that his signa- 
ture had been forged, and he besought them to establish a 
joint protectorate over Korea in order to save it from 
vassalage. He may not have told the literal truth in alleg- 
ing that his signature was forged, but he certainly did not 
sign the document voluntarily. 

Great was the excitement among the people when the 
treaty became known. A number of the more patriotic 
officials committed suicide, six of them of high rank, includ- 
ing the popular General Min Yung-whan, ending their lives 
by harakiri. Crowds gathered, screaming and tearing their 



JAPANESE ANNEXATION OF KOREA 197 

hair. The Japanese wisely left the people to vent their 
grief and rage without interference, except when stones 
were thrown or fighting began. Order was gradually re- 
stored; but the fires of anger and chagrin long smouldered 
in secret. 

Prince Ito gave an interview to the representatives of 
the press in Seoul in which he said: "Now that the new 
treaty between Japan and Korea is concluded, it is believed 
by many Japanese even that Korea has been given to Japan, 
and this rash belief has caused bad feeling and misunder- 
standings between the two races. The most important 
point that I wish to impress upon you is that, although the 
new relations between Japan and Korea have now been 
definitely established by the conclusion of the protectorate 
treaty, the sovereignty of Korea remains as it was, in the 
hands of the Korean Emperor, and the imperial house of 
Korea and government exists as it did before. The new 
relations do but add to the welfare and dignity of the 
Korean dynasty and the strengthening of the country. It 
is a great mistake to look upon the new treaty as a knell 
sounding the doom of Koreans existence as a kingdom." 

The Korean Emperor, however, refused to be comforted. 
He saw that he was really under the domination of the Japa- 
nese. A man of flabby will and of hopeless incompetence 
as a ruler, he was not destitute of royal pride, and he would 
not have been human if he had not felt aggrieved when he 
was despoiled of the power that he had wielded for forty- 
one years. He hated the Japanese, partly because he re- 
garded them as hereditary enemies, and partly because 
they were less disposed than the Russians had been to 
flatter him and to supply his financial necessities. Fail- 
ing to recognize the hopelessness of his situation, he made 
his palace a centre of intrigue against the Japanese. He 
was too helpless to do anything that could seriously affect 
their plans, but he could do quite enough to irritate them 
in a hundred ways which Oriental duplicity so well under- 
stands. 

Some time before the convention of November 17, as a 



198 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

last desperate recourse he had asked Mr. Homer B. Hul- 
bert, the American in charge of the government school in 
Seoul, to make a personal appeal to President Roosevelt. 
Mr. Hulbert started at once, but the Japanese suspected 
the object of his journey, and shadowed him by spies all 
the way. They deemed it improbable that the American 
Government would interfere, but they took no chances and 
pressed matters as vigorously as possible with a view to 
having the whole question irrevocably decided before Mr. 
Hulbert could reach Washington. He managed to arrive 
in San Francisco before the final steps of the convention 
could be completed, but by the time he reached Washington 
he was too late. He vainly sought an interview with the 
President, but Mr. Roosevelt did not deem it expedient 
to see him, and he was obliged to content himself with an 
interview with the Secretary of State, who frankly advised 
him that it was impracticable for the American Govern- 
ment to intervene. The Emperor cabled Mr, Hulbert 
December 8 that he regarded the convention of November 
17 as ^^ cancelled on account of force,'' and that "protest 
should be entered at once''; but Mr. Hulbert found that 
his path was blocked at every turn and that he could ac- 
complish nothing. 

The course of the American Government had been a 
bitter disappointment to the Koreans for some time prior 
to Hulbert 's arrival in Washington. The government felt 
that it was in an awkward position by reason of the treaty 
with Korea which was proposed in 1882 and agreed to 
May 10, 1883, one of whose clauses provided that if other 
Powers dealt unjustly or oppressively with either govern- 
ment, "the other would exert their good offices, on being 
informed of the case, to bring about an amicable arrange- 
ment, thus showing their friendly feeling." On the strength 
of this treaty an American party was growing up in Korea 
composed of Koreans who looked to the United States for 
help in the emergency which all saw to be impending. The 
Washington State Department saw the trend of Korean feel- 
ing, and was not a little embarrassed as it was convinced 



JAPANESE ANNEXATION OF KOREA 199 

that it could not wisely intervene in the conditions which 
had developed. 

The American Minister at Seoul, tne Honorable Horace 
N. Allen, was a careful diplomat, and he realized the deli- 
cacy of the situation. But he could not tell the Koreans 
that his government would not observe its treaty obliga- 
tions, nor could he prevent the Koreans from regarding him 
as their special friend. He had lived among them for many 
years, and he had a kindly feeling for them, which the}^ well 
knew. Some of the Japanese newspapers charged him 
with being pro-Russian, a charge which had no foundation 
whatever. At any rate, the Japanese regarded him as an 
obstacle to their plans, and June 10, 1905, the Honorable 
Edwin V. Morgan appeared in Seoul, with orders to super- 
sede Allen as American Minister, his commission being dated 
the preceding March. 

The statement that the Tokyo govemmeilt asked for 
Allen's recall has been vigorously denied; but a hint was 
doubtless conveyed to Washington, by the indirect methods 
which diplomacy so well understands, that the Japanese 
would be gratified if a change were made in the American 
legation at Seoul. Doubtless, too, the American Govern- 
ment beheved that it would be better at that particular 
juncture to have a minister in Korea who was not so well 
known for his friendship with the Koreans. So one of the 
most efficient representatives that the United States has 
ever had in the Far East, who in a residence of twenty-one 
years in Korea, fifteen of them in the diplomatic service, 
had acquired knowledge and experience of exceptional 
value and was dean of the diplomatic corps in Seoul, was 
summarily dropped for the offense of being liked and trusted 
by the government and people to which he was accredited. 

Mr. Morgan's tenure was brief. The Western govern- 
ments did not fail to discern the significance of the conven- 
tion of November 17. With all diplomatic matters handled 
in Tokyo, the occupation of the legations in Seoul was gone, 
and the Ministers were therefore withdrawn. To the in- 
dignation of the Koreans and the chagrin of the Americans 



200 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

in Korea, the government of the United States was the 
first to withdraw its Minister. It leaked out afterward 
that the Japanese Minister at Peking had hinted to the 
American Minister, the Honorable William W. Rockhill, 
that in view of the Korean hope of American intervention, 
it would be pleasing to Japan if the United States should be 
the first nation to close its legation in Seoul, as the moral 
effect upon the Koreans would be great, and the American 
party would realize that it would be useless to make further 
opposition. The Japanese Minister at Washington had 
dropped an intimation to the same effect. The American 
Government obHgingly complied. November 25, only a 
week after the convention between Korea and Japan was 
signed, Morgan was oflicially notified to leave, and as soon 
as he could pack up he left the city, December 8. Ameri- 
can prestige among the Koreans immediately slumped, and 
among the Japanese it as promptly rose. 

Three days later, December 11, Min Yeung-tchan, who 
was styled "special envoy without credentials,^' called on 
the American Secretary of State in Washington and stated 
that the treaty of November 17, under which the direction 
of the external relations of Korea was to be conducted 
through the Department of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo, was 
procured from the Emperor of Korea by duress, and should, 
therefore, be ignored. He asked the United States to act 
in behalf of Korea under the treaty of May 10, 1883, be- 
tween the United States and Korea. Secretary Root re- 
plied December 19, stating that he had given his communi- 
cation consideration, and since his call had received a note 
from Mr. Kim, Charge d'Affaires of Korea, in which he had 
informed the State Department that he had instructions 
from the Foreign Minister of Korea to turn the archives 
and other property in his charge over to the Japanese lega- 
tion. Secretary Root concluded: "In view of this official 
conmaunication, it is difi[icult to see how the Government 
of the United States can proceed in any manner upon the 
entirely different view of the facts which you tell us per- 
sonally you have been led to take by the information which 



JAPANESE ANNEXATION OF KOREA 201 

you have received. It is to be observed, moreover, that the 
official communications from the Japanese Government 
agree with the official communications from the Korean 
Government and are ouite inconsistent with your informa- 
tion." ^ 

This, of course, was diplomatic camouflage. We shall 
not do Mr. Root the injustice to assume that a Secretary 
of State of his abiHty and intelligence did not know that 
"the official commmiications'^ to which he referred were 
not representative of the real Korean opinion. The simple 
fact was that the American Government deemed interven- 
tion impracticable, and found it convenient to take advan- 
tage of technical reports in excusing itself. It well knew 
that protest would avail nothing, that it would not help 
Korea, and would only irritate Japan. Years afterward 
Mr. Roosevelt justified his course in the following statement, 
which at a later date must have been read in Berlin with 
full approval: "Korea is absolutely Japan's. To be sure, 
by treaty it was solemnly covenanted that Korea should re- 
main independent. But Korea was itself helpless to en- 
force the treaty, and it was out of the question to suppose 
that any other nation with no interest of its own at stake 
would attempt to do for the Koreans what they were utterly 
unable to do for themselves. Moreover, the treaty rested 
on the false assumption that Korea could govern herself 
well. It had already been shown that she could not in 
any real sense govern herself at all. Japan could not af- 
ford to see Korea in the hands of a great foreign power. 
She regarded her duty to her children and her children's 
children as overriding her treaty obligations. Therefore, 
when Japan thought the right time had come, it calmly 
tore up the treaty and took Korea, with the polite and busi- 
nesslike efficiency it had already shown in dealing with 
Russia, and was afterward to show in dealing with Ger- 
many."^ 

The limit of Japanese patience was reached when, in the 

* Foreign Relations of the United States, 1905. 

2 Article in The Outlook, New York, September 23, 1914. 



202 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

spring of 1907; the Korean Emperor sent a delegation to 
the International Conference at The Hague to implore the 
interference of Western nations. There was something pa- 
thetic in the appearance of the forlorn but patriotic Koreans 
pleading for a lost cause; for, of course, the Hague commis- 
sioners could not receive them. The Japanese were furious. 
The Korean Emperor denied that he was responsible for the 
delegation, but no one believed him. 

July 18, the Korean Cabinet ministers waited upon his 
Majesty and humbly but firmly represented to him the 
serious dangers to which he was exposing the country by 
his continued opposition to the Japanese, and advised him 
to abdicate. He listened with mingled rage and consterna- 
tion; but after long and stormy conferences with them and 
his Elder Statesmen, the crushed and humiliated ruler 
tremblingly affixed his signature to an imperial decree an- 
nouncing the transfer of the throne to the Crown Prince. 
The hapless man who ascended the throne in this inglorious 
manner was even weaker in mind and body than his father, 
so dull and stupid that he was suspected of being mentally 
deficient. He was crowned with due ceremonial August 27, 
and when the Koreans saw that he had cut off his topknot, 
they felt that their cup of humiliation was full. Mobs sur- 
rounded the palace and for a time it looked as if there would 
be serious trouble. But the Japanese troops were ready, 
and gradually the tumult subsided, although many of the 
people remained sullen. 

Of course, the Japanese diplomatically announced that 
they had nothing whatever to do with the Emperor's abdi- 
cation; that the step had been taken solely on the advice 
of wise and patriotic Koreans who had become firmly con- 
vinced that the retirement of the Emperor was necessary in 
the interests of the people themselves; that the Japanese 
would have preferred to have the old Emperor remain on 
the throne, etc. Of course, also, no one with intelHgence 
enough to be out of a kindergarten doubted for a mo- 
ment that the Japanese really deposed the troublesome old 
Emperor and put his putty son in his place. Denials were 



JAPANESE ANNEXATION OF KOREA 203 

purely ^^ diplomatic/' "to save face.'' The Japanese were 
simply astute enough to cover up their tracks so that it 
would be difficult for an outsider to connect them directly 
with the affair. Even if the Korean Cabinet Ministers did 
act without explicit orders, the essential fact would be un- 
changed. Does any sane person imagine that those puppet 
Orientals would have proceeded to such extremes in a mat- 
ter affecting the throne without knowing what their Jap- 
anese masters wanted; or if they had, that the Japanese 
would not have stopped them in a hurry? 

Much has been said about Japan's disregara of Korean 
rights in this matter. The Japanese defend themselves by 
saying that they did not violate any treaty, as they left 
the throne in the hands of the Korean royal family, simply 
anticipating by a few years the transfer from father to son. 
However this may be, the Japanese lost no time in putting 
themselves into such relations with the situation that the 
new Emperor would be even more helpless than his royal 
father. July 24, Yi Wan-yung, an able and well-educated 
but notoriously corrupt official, acting by authority of the 
Emperor and Prince Ito, signed an agreement at the 
Japanese residency in the following terms: '^ Article I. 
The Government of Korea shall follow the directions of the 
Resident-General in connection with the reform of the ad- 
ministration. Article II. Korea shall not enact any law 
or ordinance or carry out any administrative measure un- 
less it has the previous approval of the Resident-General. 
Article III. The Judicial affairs of Korea shall be kept 
distinct from ordinary administrative affairs. Article IV. 
No appointment or dismissal of Korean officials of high 
grade shall be made without the consent of the Resident- 
General. Article V. Korea shall appoint to official posi- 
tions such Japanese as are recommended by the Resident- 
General. Article VI. Korea shall not engage any foreigner 
without the consent of the Resident-General. Article VII. 
The first clause of the agreement between Japan and Korea, 
dated August 22, 1904, is hereby abrogated." The Emperor 
was required to issue a proclamation disbanding his army, 



204 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

although he was permitted to retain a few battalions of the 
imperial court guards to assist in maintaining the semblance 
of royalty. Some of the soldiers mutinied on receiving 
the order to give up their arms, and killed a few of the 
Japanese; but they were quickly overpowered and the 
Korean army ceased to exist. 

Thus died Korea as even a nominally independent nation. 
It is true that the formal announcement of annexation to 
Japan was not made till 1910; but the proclamation then 
simply gave official recognition to a fact which had long 
been known and recognized. Any one who had observed 
the tide of Japanese immigration into Korea, the business 
and property interests which were speedily developed, and 
who knew the national and international questions at stake, 
might have known that annexation was inevitable sooner 
or later. There were 60,000 Japanese in Korea before the 
war, and after the Japanese occupation the number increased 
by leaps and bounds. It was not reasonable to suppose 
that a large Japanese population would permanently re- 
main under the absurd Korean laws, or support by taxes 
the rotten Korean Government. The principle of extra- 
territoriality was not deemed sufficient to provide for such 
a situation. Nor was it probable that a region so vital to 
Japan's political and military position would be left in such 
an unsatisfactory condition. 

The critics of Japan have charged her with breaking her 
plighted word, given in the treaty of February 23, 1904, 
which included the following pledge: "The Imperial Gov- 
ernment of Japan definitively guarantees the independence 
and territorial integrity of the Korean Empire.'' The semi- 
official Japan TimeSf whose editor, Mr'. Zumoto, was for- 
merly private secretary of Prince Ito, and afterward a 
member of the Japanese Diet, had editorially declared in 
September, 1904: "We are solemnly pledged before the 
world to respect the independence^of the Peninsula Kingdom, 
and nothing in the past poHcy and action of the Imperial 
Government gives even the shadow of excuse for doubting 
its good faith in its international relations." It is not neces- 



JAPANESE ANNEXATION OF KOREA 205 

sary, however, to assume that Japan acted in bad faith. 
Some Japanese call attention to the fact that the treaty of 
November 17, 1905, dropped the guarantee of independence 
and substituted an undertaking to "maintain the security 
and respect and dignity of the Korean Imperial House.'* 
But the facts may be interpreted consistently with the gen- 
uineness of Japan's original purpose to content herself with 
a protectorate. Prince Ito, in an authorized interview with 
a representative of the Associated Press, September 21, 
1907, had said that "some people in Japan beheve it is a 
mistake not to annex Korea, but I have been steadfastly 
opposed to annexation. Annexation is no part of the Em- 
peror's plan, unless it should prove quite unavoidable." 

We believe that Prince Ito was sincere in his purpose to 
give a fair trial to the plan of a protectorate. But experi- 
ence proved that the plan was a failure. The Foreign Office 
in Tokyo frankly admitted it when, in an official statement 
issued in connection with the promulgation of the treaty of 
annexation, it said: "An earnest and careful examination 
of the Korean problem has convinced the Japanese Govern- 
ment that the regime of a protectorate can not be made to 
adapt itseK to the actual condition of affairs in Korea, and 
that the responsibilities devolving upon Japan for the due 
administration of that country can not be justly fulfilled 
without the complete annexation of Korea to this Empire. 
. . . Resident-General Viscount Terauchi, in proceeding to 
his post, was charged to arrange for such solution." 

Mr. Kotaro Michizuki, a prominent member of the Par- 
liamentary Commission, pointedly declared: "President 
Hoosevelt took the Canal Zone because it was essential for 
the national defence of the United States. Japan annexed 
Korea for the same reason. Only Colombia was not men- 
acing the very existence of the United States, while Korea 
certainly was through her intrigues with Russia." So no 
one was surprised when the Foreign Office in Tokyo gave 
out the text of the "treaty" of annexation, August 29, 1910, 
which declared that "His Majesty the Emperor of Japan 
and His Majesty the Emperor of Korea, having in view the 



206 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

special and close relations between their respective coun- 
tries, desiring to promote the common weal of the two na- 
tions and to assure permanent peace in the Extreme East, 
and being convinced that these objects can be best attained 
by the amiexation of Korea to the Empire of Japan, have 
resolved to conclude a treaty of such annexation. . . . His 
Majesty the Emperor of Korea makes complete and per- 
manent cession to His Majesty the Emperor of Japan of 
all rights of sovereignty over the whole of Korea"; and 
"His Majesty the Emperor of Japan accepts the cession 
mentioned in the preceding Article, and consents to the 
complete annexation of Korea to the Empire of Japan. ..." 

Much of the talk about the loss of Korean independence 
is irrelevant. It is indeed pathetic to the last degree to 
see an ancient people reduced to vassalage. The meeting 
of the Cabinet Ministers and the Emperor, August 24, at 
which annexation was agreed to, is said to have been a 
moving one. The Premier, Yi Wan-yung, spoke sorrowfully 
and at length of "the hard fate of the country in being 
obHged to surrender its independence in deference to the 
welfare of the people and the security of their hves and 
property." The Emperor listened and then said in a low 
voice and with evident emotion: "I have fully understood 
the representations made by the Prime Minister, and I 
leave it in your Excellencies' hands to deal with the situa- 
tion." But acquiescence was unavoidable. Korea's weak- 
ness and its position in the Far East rendered domination 
by some foreign Power inevitable. The only question was: 
"Under which King, Bezonian" — Russia's or Japan's? 

Thus the curtain fell on the final scene of the passing of 
old Korea — "this shuttlecock among the nations," as Lord 
Curzon characterized her, "who treated her from entirely 
different and wholly irreconcilable standpoints according 
to their own interests or prejudices, and at whose hands she 
was alternately — ^nay even simultaneously — ^patronized, ca- 
joled, bullied and caressed."^ The long and weary struggle 
was now ended, and Korea became in name as well as in 

1 Problems of the Far East, p. 188. 



JAPANESE ANNEXATION OF KOREA 207 

fact an integral part of the Japanese Empire. The old 
Emperor and his successor were more fortunate than most 
deposed sovereigns, for their heads remained on their 
shoulders. They were officially called Prince Father Yi and 
Prince Yi, and were given an annual civil list of yen 1,500,- 
000 while they vegetated in retirement in their former 
capital. Stupidity and feebleness are conducive to longev- 
ity in such circumstances. Prince Father Yi indolently 
lingered till January 21, 1919, when he was gathered to his 
ancestors. Prince Yi was still living, at last accoimts, a 
dolorously pathetic survival of a bygone era. 



CHAPTER XIII 

MANCHURIA AS A FACTOR IN THE FAR EASTERN 
PROBLEM 

Crossing the Yalu River at Wiju, Korea, one enters 
Manchuria, the great debatable ground of the Far East. 
It more nearly resembles Canada than any other region of 
my acquaintance. Its area of 363,610 square miles is more 
than double that of Japan, and fom* times that of Korea. 
The scenery is as diversified as one might expect in so vast 
a territory; but while certain parts are hilly, and even 
mountainous, an immense section is as level as an American 
prairie. It is one of the finest agricultural regions in the 
world. Although comparatively undeveloped, it already 
produces immense quantities of grain. Manchuria could be 
made the granary of eastern Asia as there is hardly any 
limit to the staple crops that it could yield. 

Minerals are abundant. Coal, iron, mica, lead, copper, 
gold, silver, asbestos and gypsimi are found in various 
sections, and In varying degrees of richness, as weU as lime- 
stone and other rocks, some of them well adapted to build- 
ing purposes. The Chinese have long known of the de- 
posits that lie near the surface or outcrop on hillsides or 
river-banks, but their mining methods were crude and in- 
fluenced by superstitious fear of fung-shui (spirits of earth 
and air), so that they yielded scanty results. Russians in 
the north and a few British companies in the south operated 
more successfully, the latter under concessions from the 
Chinese Government. Such concessions were not easily 
secured during the last decade, and it is doubtful whether 
more will be granted, partly because of the growing unwill- 
ingness of the Peking authorities, but chiefly because the 
Japanese want the mining privileges themselves. They are 
already developing a number of mines on a comparatively 
large scale. The Fushun pits, northeast of Mukden, are 

208 



MANCHURIA AND THE FAR EAST 209 

turning out great quantities of coal. The quality is not 
high, but the mining methods are thoroughly modern, and 
the product is so abundant and cheap that it can be bought 
almost anywhere in Manchuria and Korea. The Penchi-hu 
mines work less extensive deposits, but the coal is superior 
for industrial pmposes, while anthracite and natural coke, 
valuable for smelting, are mined in the neighborhood of 
Niusin-tai. Iron ore is found in generous quantities near 
enough to veins of coal to make foundries exceedingly 
profitable. Gold, silver, lead, and copper are mined on a 
smaller scale, but successfully in a number of places. A 
British mining engineer has characterized as ^^exceedingly 
rich'' a region thirty-five square miles near Tung-hwa and 
Hwai-jen, and the report of a Japanese investigator men- 
tions ore whose gold reaches in some cases above 1/10,000 
grade, and is ninety-nine per cent fine.^ 

The population of Manchuria, estimated to be about 
20,000,000, looks large in comparison with Canada, which, 
with a habitable area equal to that of Manchuria, has a 
population of only 7,206,643; but compared with Japan, 
Korea, and the eighteen provinces of China, Manchuria is 
sparsely settled, and could easily support many times its 
present population. The characteristic type of course is 
Manchu ; but there are great numbers of pure Chinese, and 
the numbers are rapidly increasing, for Manchuria offers 
cheaper land and better hope of remunerative employment 
than the more crowded sections of China. The distinction 
between the Manchu and the Chinese is not so apparent in 
Manchuria as in China proper. Indeed, I often found it 
impossible to tell whether men I met upon the streets were 
Manchus or Chinese. I frequentfy asked residents to tell 
me, and they were usually unable to do so except after 
inquiry. It is easier to distinguish Manchu women, as 
their manner of dressing the hair is different from that of 
Chinese women. Manchu women also do not bind their 
feet; but unbound feet are not always a clew in Manchiu*ia, 
as the Chinese women in that region do not bind their feet 

1 Cf.The Oriental Review, November 25, 1910. 



21U THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

SO generally as their sisters in central and southern China. 
The intermingling of the Chinese and the Manchus appears 
much more complete in Manchuria than in other parts of 
China, and the result is a virile t}^e; physically vigorous 
and mentally alert. 

The Manchu dynasty long ruled all China, but in recent 
years the people of Manchuria have been overawed by the 
aggressive power first of the Russians, and later of the 
Japanese. Manchuria was helpless before the mihtary 
strength of the Russian occupation prior to the Russia- 
Japan War. The common people cared little who their 
iTilers were, knowing that they would get scanty considera- 
tion in any event, while the ruffled dignity of officials was 
smoothed by Russian gold. The Russians had greater 
tact in getting along with the Chinese than any other 
foreign people showed, and difficulties were seldom serious. 
When Japan drove Russia out of Port Arthur and southern 
Manchuria, the people simply exchanged one master for 
another. Many of their fields and villages were destroyed; 
but it was not the poHcy of either the Japanese or the Rus- 
sians to molest the Manchurians unnecessarily, and as the 
contending armies required enormous food-supplies and 
tens of thousands of carts and laborers, the thrifty inhabi- 
tants took shrewd advantage of their opportunity and reaped 
rich profits from both sides with true Chinese impartiaHty. 

There are several important towns and cities besides in- 
numerable villages. Port Arthur and Dalny have been 
already mentioned. Antung on the Yalu River, not long 
ago a squaHd village, has been developed as the point at 
which the railway from Fusan to Mukden crosses the river, 
and as the port of entry to Manchuria through which pours 
an immense volume of Japanese trade. Kirin has been 
given prosperity by its coal-mines and by the railway 
which connects it with Chang-chun and, through that city, 
with the great markets of the regions beyond. 

One of the most interesting cities to the traveller is 
Mukden, the ancient capital of the Manchu emperors, and 
afterward the seat of a Chinese Viceroy. The fine old wall, 



MANCHURIA AND THE FAR EAST 211 

though crumbling in places, is still a notable monument of 
former power. We walked the entire circumference of it 
during our visit. A few breaks necessitated awkward 
scrambling, but the view was inspiring and every yard 
seemed to teem with historic associations, the vanished 
glories of a great imperial house. The palaces of the em- 
perors are kept in tolerable repair, and were freely showed 
to us on a card of introduction from the American Consul. 
A few miles from the city are the tombs of the emperors — 
massive mounds, small hills, indeed, rather than mounds, 
and fronted by the spacious parks and temples and gates 
which usually mark the last resting-places of Asiatic rulers, 
and which are profoundly impressive with their noble pro- 
portions and solemn surroundings. Here also are battle- 
fields of many wars, from the fierce fights of wild tribes far 
back in a shadowy antiquity to that titanic conflict between 
Russia and Japan, when, along a front of a hundred miles, 
huge modem armies grappled in one of the decisive battles 
of the world. Recent years have brought startling changes 
to the quaint old city. After gazing with stirred imagina- 
tion at the reHcs of ancient wealth and splendor, it seems 
odd to see a railway station, telegraph and telephone lines, 
macadamized streets, trolley-cars, and modern public build- 
ings lighted by electricity. 

The Scotch Presbyterian Mission on the east side of the 
city, the Irish Presbyterian on the west side, and the British 
and Foreign Bible Society^s agency not far from the Scotch 
compound, represent churches, schools, hospitals, and a 
wide-reaching evangelistic work. The Scotch Presbyterian 
Hospital, so long superintended by the famous Doctor 
Dugald Christie, is one of the most notable mission hos- 
pitals in the world. Doctor Christie, whose missionary 
career began in 1882 and continued for a notable genera- 
tion, was a man of large vision, catholic sympathies, and 
conspicuous ability in dealing with men. He so impressed 
officials and wealthy Manchus and Chinese that they liber- 
ally contributed to his work. Personal danger did not deter 
him, and in the tragic days when violence raged about 



212 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Mukden, he calmly continued his beneficent care of the 
sick and wounded. The mission property was destroyed in 
the Boxer Uprising, his associate, Mr. Wylie, was murdered 
by Chinese soldiers in the China-Japan War, and shells fell 
in the hospital compound and on the roof of the building 
during the battle between the Russians and Japanese; but 
with the heroism of a soldier he steadily performed opera- 
tions and ministered to the dying. The whole city honored 
this intrepid missionary. 

New-chwang has long been the commercial gateway of 
Manchuria. Situated on the river Lia-ho only a few miles 
from the Gulf of Liao-tung, its low, flat mucky ground be- 
comes unfathomable mud in the rainy season; but the soil 
of the outlying region is amazingly fertile, and the city as 
the shipping-port has long had a rich trade. The South 
Manchurian Railway, under Japanese management, has 
made vigorous efforts to divert this trade to Dalny (now 
Dairen). Discriminatory rates bore heavily against New- 
chwang, an ofiicial report showing that the freight tariff 
to Mukden, 115 miles distant, was higher than that from 
Dairen to Mukden, 246 miles away. 

Chang-chun, formerly a wretched place, rapidly rose in 
importance after the Russia-Japan War as the point of 
transition from Japanese to Russian spheres of influence. 
Here the South Manchurian Railway ended and the Russian 
State Railway began. Both Russians and Japanese there- 
fore kept their eyes on Chang-chim. The railways brought 
not only political and miUtary importance, but access to 
markets for the beans which yield prolifically on the broad, 
rich fields which stretch for scores of miles in every direc- 
tion. The resultant trade has reached huge proportions. 
Chang-chun is probably the pre-eminent bean city of the 
world. Enormous heaps lying on the dry ground at the 
shipping season are one of the sights of the Far East. The 
beans and their product in oil or cake are shipped to China, 
Korea, Japan, and even Europe, to which 350,000 tons have 
been sent in a single year. 

Harbin is another city which owes its present dignity to 



MANCHURIA AND THE FAR EAST 213 

foreigners. The Russians have made Harbin. It is on the 
main line of the Trans-Siberian Railway from Vladivostok, 
and at its junction with the line which runs southward 
through Manchuria. This means that the whole tide of 
railway travel and freight from Manchuria, China, and 
Korea passes through Harbin, and is transshipped there, 
Japan adding its quota during the six months of every year 
that the harbor of Vladivostok is closed by ice. What 
Chang-chun is for beans Harbin is for flour, horses, cattle, 
and sheep. The boundless prairies of northern Manchuria 
raise miUions of bushels of wheat, and the migratory Mon- 
golians of the steppes find in Harbin a market for their vast 
flocks and herds. During the war with Japan the Russian 
Government built eight flour-mills at Harbin, with a ca- 
pacity of 1,700,000 pounds a day, and it largely depended 
upon them to provide bread for its armies. A period of de- 
pression followed the war, but when the government heard 
reports that American flour-manufacturers were trying to 
buy the mills with a view to controlling the trade, it promptly 
gave financial assistance in order to keep the mills in Rus- 
sian hands. The wheat is of good quahty, but the millers 
do not make as good flour as Americans. They can make 
it more cheaply, however, and their customers are not so 
particular as we are, so that Harbin is likely to remain the 
centre of flour manufacture for the Far East. When we 
take into consideration not only these mills but the great 
stock-yards and horse-markets, the beet-sugar factories, and 
the general business for which it is the distributing-point, 
one can easily see that Harbin is a city of no small impor- 
tance. 

Since the Russia-Japan War an anomalous condition has 
prevailed. Theoretically, Manchuria remains a part of 
China. Its officials are appointed b}^ the government of 
China, and are supposed to be amenable to it. Practically, 
the Viceroy and his subordinates are in a very embarrassing 
position. They are expected by the Peking government 
to rule the country; but north of Chang-chun the Rus- 
sians, until the chaos which followed the revolution of 1917 



214 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

weakened their hold, were in possession of the railway and 
all the leading cities en route. South of Chang-chun the 
Japanese hold the railway, the fortified city of Port Arthur, 
and the commercial city of Dairen. Both Russians and 
Japanese do as they please in their respective territories, 
with little regard for the wishes of the Chinese officials. It 
is true that their jurisdiction is technically limited to a 
narrow strip on each side of the railway, but as that rail- 
way is the one thoroughfare of the countr}^ along which 
all streams of trade and travel flow, and in which practically 
all the activities of Manchuria centre, the limitation is more 
nominal than real, and a Chinese magistrate who acted on 
any other assumption would quickly find himself in hot 
water. 

An incident will illustrate the difficulties of the situation. 
Shortty before my visit a representative of an electrical 
supply company in the United States obtained a contract 
for electric lighting from the Chinese Viceroy at Mukden, 
w^ho employed an American electrical engineer to install 
the plant. After the poles were set up there was some de- 
lay waiting for the wires to arrive. In the interval the 
Japanese began erecting poles in the same streets. They 
had no legal right to do this outside of their concession 
around the railway station, about three miles from the city 
wall ; but they proceeded to do so and without asking per- 
mission from the Chinese authorities. In some streets 
they actually strung their wires on the poles which had been 
set up by the American engineer. When their right was 
challenged, they replied that Prince Fushima, the Crown 
Prince, was expected to visit Mukden, and that they de- 
sired to illuminate the streets and the Japanese Consulate 
in his honor. Asked whether they would take down their 
wires and poles after his visit, they replied in the affirmative; 
so they were permitted to continue their work. The princely 
visit passed, but the wires were not taken down. Mean- 
time, the American wires had arrived. The Japanese ig- 
nored requests to take their poles and wires out of the way. 
The wrathful American engineer gave them three days' 



MANCHURIA AND THE FAR EAST 215 

notice, and then instructed his men to cut down the Japa- 
nese wires and to string his own. A terrific uproar ensued. 
The Japanese rushed to the Viceroy and made such rep- 
resentations to him that he ordered the American engineer, 
whom he himself had employed, to take down the wires 
from his own poles and let the Japanese put theirs back. 
The American engineer refused compHance, and the fright- 
ened Viceroy was induced to give the Japanese permission 
to do it themselves. Then the Japanese offered to sell 
their wires to the Viceroy, fixing a price about three times 
above then value. This was the situation when I left. 

I heard many complaints that during and immediately 
after the Russia-Japan War hundreds of Japanese trades- 
men had taken possession of shops in Manchurian cities, in 
some cases forcibly ejecting the Chinese proprietors, and 
that they have kept these shops ever since, refusing to pay 
rent except where some particular shopkeeper was able to 
compel payment. Any one who wishes information about 
the methods which the Japanese employ in such circum- 
stances might secure heartfelt opinions from Colbran & 
Bostwick, the American company which had the street 
railway, electric fighting, and some other concessions in 
Seoul. 

In 1909 the Honorable Philander Knox, then American 
Secretary of State, conceived the notion of neutrafizing the 
Manchurian railways under the joint agreement of Russia, 
Japan, France, Germany, and Great Britain, and he pro- 
posed this in a note to these Powers. It was a beautiful 
mirage, easily suggested by the anomalous condition which 
prevailed in Manchuria, the overlapping and irritations in- 
cident to the relations of Chinese, Japanese, and Russians, 
and the commercial interests of American and European 
nations. It was so utterly impracticable that it is amazing 
that a responsible government official should have seriously 
urged it, and it is all the more amazing that he should have 
allowed it to become public before he had confidentially as- 
certained the attitude of the Powers concerned. While 
Russia and Japan highly valued the commercial advantages 



216 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

of the railways which they respectively controlled in Man- 
churia, their chief interest in them was militaiy. The idea 
that the Russians would consent to having the railway 
which was their only thoroughfare of approach to Man- 
churia and the Far East taken out of their hands, and the 
idea that the Japanese would ever surrender exclusive con- 
trol of the railways which are mdispensable to their exist- 
ence in Manchuria and to the safety of Korea, were utterly 
visionary. However desirable from an American view- 
point, the proposal was as chimerical as a trip to the moon. 

It is not surprising that the proposal was received with 
outward politeness and inward derision in Berlin, Paris, and 
London, and that in Tokyo and St. Petersburg it was re- 
ceived with emotions which would not come under the 
motto of the New York Times: "All the news that's fit to 
print." However, the amenities of diplomatic intercourse 
proved to be equal to the strain. France, Germany, and 
Great Britain suavely regretted that they were unable to 
comply with the request. Russia in January, 1910, solemnly 
reminded the government of the United States that the 
Chinese Eastern Railway represented such expenditures of 
Russian money, w^as so related to the development of Rus- 
sian enterprises, and so ^^ served as the principal medium of 
Russia's connections" that "it is most important to re- 
tain the closest control over the line which of course could 
not be maintained if the railway were transferred to an in- 
ternational syndicate"; . . . that "the principles of the 
inviolabihty of China's sovereignty, the poHcy of the open 
door and equal commercial opportunities in Manchuria, are 
not at present threatened in any way; and therefore the 
questions raised by the government of the United States 
with regard to the most effective means of defending these 
principles are not justified by the condition of affairs in 
Manchuria." 

In Tokyo, Count Komura, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
blandly explained Japan's refusal in an address in the Diet, 
January 27, which included the following significant sen- 
tences: "While the Imperial Government are determined 



MANCHURIA AND THE FAR EAST 217 

to adhere to their avowed poHcy scrupulously to uphold the 
principle of the open door and equal opportunity in Man- 
churia, it should be observed that realization of the pro- 
posed plan would bring about radical changes in the condi- 
tion of things in Manchuria which was established by the 
treaties of Portsmouth and Peking^ and would thus be at- 
tended with serious consequences in the region affected by 
the South Manchurian Railway. There have grown up 
numerous undertakings which have been promoted in the 
behef that the railway would remain in our possession and 
the Imperial Government could not; with a due sense of 
their responsibiHty, agree to abandon the railway in ques- 
tion." 

The proposal not only failed, but it had the startling re- 
sult of brmging Russia and Japan together, as each govern- 
ment wished to retain what it had. For once they had a 
common interest against the rest of the world, and July 4, 
1910, they signed an agreement which recognized their con- 
trol of their respective railway-lines, delimited their spheres 
of influence in Manchuria, formed a working agreement 
which gave each government freedom to consolidate its 
interests in the region assigned to it, and served as a broad 
hint to western secretaries of state that -outsiders had 
better " keep off the grass." Marquis Katsura, then Premier 
of Japan, denied that the treaty was influenced by the pro- 
posal of Mr. Knox, and asserted that it had been under 
consideration for some time prior to that proposal, ^^ solely 
with the purpose of affording a reassurance of the friendly 
relations between Japan and Russia and of insuring peace 
in the Far East; though at the same time with the prac- 
tical object of improving traffic connections and working 
arrangements between the railroads." Whether or not 
this statement was purely ^^ diplomatic," it is undoubtedly 
true that the American proposal hastened the consimuna- 
tion of any negotiations that may have been in progress 
between Japan and Russia and gave both parties added 
satisfaction when they were concluded. The only satisfac- 
tion that the rest of the world could get out of the treaty 



218 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

lay in the reflection that, since Russia and Japan were in 
Manchuria smywsiy, and intended to stay there, it was 
better for them to come to some agreement than to keep 
the region in turmoil by conflicting activities. 

Mr. Knox, therefore, instead of opening Manchuria as 
he had contemplated, simply consolidated Japanese power 
in Korea and lower Manchuria and Russian power in 
upper Manchuria. China's interests were wholly ignored. 
It is true that Marquis Katsura declared that ^^it is Japan's 
determined policy to adhere closely to all agreements and 
treaties with China and other nations." But this signified 
nothing when a large section of Chinese territory was calmly 
divided between two foreign Powers. Yint Chang, then 
the Chinese Minister to Germany, truly said: ''The Russo- 
Japanese agreement of course deals my country a vital 
blow. It amounts to nothing more or less than the partition 
of Manchuria between the contracting powers. They talk, 
it is true, about maintenance of the status quo and have 
written 'open door' in large beautiful characters across the 
face of the agreement; but everybody understands that 
the door is really being slammed shut." 

Did Russia abandon her purpose to reach the open sea 
in the Far East ? She did not. There were Russians who 
felt that the whole Manchurian policy of their government 
had been a mistake, that Manchuria was a costly burden, 
and that Russia would be better off without it; but such 
Russians were comparatively few. No one who under- 
stood the character and aspirations of Russia believed that 
her withdrawal was even a remote possibility, or that she 
would fail to move farther south as soon as she could. For 
the time Russia appeared to be on good terms with Japan 
and the two countries sought certain common interests in 
an amicable way. A brief but significant convention of 
two articles was signed July 6, 1916, to safeguard the inter- 
ests of the two governments in the Far East. But all the 
reasons which led her to occupy Manchuria and to try to 
get Korea years ago existed in undiminished force. Cli- 
mate and geography had not changed. Vladivostock, the 



MANCHURIA AND THE FAR EAST 219 

terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway, was still blocked 
by ice nearty half of the year and was still upon the Japan 
Sea with no outlet upon the Pacific except through narrow 
straits which Japan controlled. The Russian imperialists, 
bHssfuUy unaware that they were to fall a few years later, 
had an irrefragable conviction that they were to inherit 
the earth. They believed that an outlet to the open sea 
through Manchuria was indispensable to their rightful 
position in the Far East, and their determination to secure 
it had not altered an iota. There might be delay; they 
would wait. A few decades more or less were a minor 
matter in realizing an age-old ambition. Meantime, Rus- 
sia proceeded to tighten her hold upon northern Manchuria, 
developed its agriculture and flour-mills so that they could 
furnish abimdant food-supplies, spent enormous sums in re- 
grading and double-tracking the Trans-Siberian Railway, 
laying heavier rails, improving rolling-stock and terminal 
facihties, encouraging her peasants to settle along the line, 
aiding them in getting land and making a start, and strength- 
ening the fortifications of Vladivostok until it would be 
harder to capture than Port Arthur ever was. 

A significant illustration of Russia's intentions occurred 
early in the year 1911, when Russia threatened to occupy 
the Chinese Province of IK, on the Mongolian frontier, on 
the pretext that the privileges granted by China in the 
treaty of 1881 were being denied to Russian trade. The 
Chinese Government hastily replied that it would comply 
with all of Russia's demands. Russian troops, however, 
continued to advance until they were within a hundred 
miles of the Chinese border, when another ultimatum was 
issued. China yielded again, and the Slav slowly retired, 
having impressed China anew with his power and his 
readiness to use it when necessary to carry out his pur- 
poses. 

Japan, too, is under no less constraint than before to re- 
sist the advance of any European nation in Manchuria, ^nd 
to maintain paramount influence in China. It is difficult 
to understand how any one who knows what they have 



220 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

done and are now doing can imagine that they contemplate 
anything else than permanent occupation. The Southern 
Manchurian Railway is one of the best railways in Asia. 
Its Pullman sleeping-cars, its fast locomotives, and its excel- 
lent road-bed are a delight to the traveller after the so- 
called accommodations which he finds in some other coun- 
tries. The Japanese have expended great sums at Dairen. 
They have constructed immense docks for shipping, opened 
new streets and repaved old ones, erected handsome public 
and private buildings, and in general are making Dairen 
a model city of the Far East. 

Japanese expenditures at Port Arthur are not so much 
in evidence as at Dairen. Most of the forts where the 
heavy fighting of the siege was done remain in the state of 
ruin in which they were left when the Russians surrendered. 
This is interesting to the visitor, for it enables him to form 
a clearer idea of the terrific character of the struggle. It is 
awe-inspiring to stand upon one of those mounds and mark 
the iTiined masonry, the heaps of debris, and the innumera- 
ble shell-holes which dot the tops and sides of the hills. It 
is difiicult to understand how flesh and blood could have 
endured such a bombardment. It is no wonder that the 
Russians, brave as they were, found it impossible to stay 
in forts which must have been belching volcanoes of ex- 
ploding shells. The fact that the Japanese have left most 
of these forts in their ruined condition does not prove that 
Port Arthur is an imguarded position. The most formidable 
fortifications which the Russians developed, those which 
protected the fortress from the sea, were not seriously in- 
jured by the Japanese. The heavy fighting was done over 
the outer line of forts on the land side, and the other gar- 
risons surrendered when the city and harbor became un- 
tenable. The result was that the Japanese obtained the 
best of the forts in excellent condition. There is Httle ne- 
cessity for them to spend much money in further fortifica- 
tions, for Port Arthur is as impregnable from the sea as 
it ever was, and the Japanese are in such absolute control 
of the land approaches that they probably are not appre- 



MANCHURIA AND THE FAR EAST 221 

hensive of the results of such an attack from that direction 
as they made upon the Russians. 

It is difficult to speak positively, however, for, while 
visitors are freely admitted to the ruined forts, they are 
not permitted to approach those that are occupied. Occa- 
sionally, too, a ruined fort, which had hitherto been open 
to inspection, is quietly withdrawn from public gaze. No 
public announcement is made and nothing appears in the 
newspapers, but the visitor who applies for a pass is politely 
told that that particular place " is not open to-day." There 
is httle doubt not only that many of the forts are in excel- 
lent military condition, with ample stores and munitions, 
but that from time to time the most important of the ruined 
forts are quietly refortified. That person is innocent in- 
deed who imagines that Japan is doing all that she is doing 
in southern Manchuria with the expectation of withdrawing 
in the near future. 

As a matter of fact, why should the Japanese withdraw ? 
They knew perfectly well that if they did the Russians 
would move down and occupy their old positions, and that 
the conditions which preceded the Russia-Japan War, and 
which caused it, would recur. It is fimdamental to sound 
thinking on this subject to remember that Japan cannot be 
expected to acquiesce in having any European Power form 
a wedge between Japan and China and He along the Korean 
frontier in such a way as to make Japanese occupation of 
Korea precarious. It has long been a settled principle of 
British policy in India not to permit Russia to come down 
to the Indian frontier, and every intelligent person imder- 
stands the reason. Why, then, should the Japanese be criti- 
cised for doing what the British are doing with their posses- 
sions, and what America would surely do if any other 
nation were to attempt to occupy Mexico? The United 
States does not fortify its Canadian line or have any un- 
easiness about it, because the Canadians are men of our 
own race and speech, and we regard them almost as we do 
our own countrymen. But suppose a nation radically dif- 
fering from us and known to have plans inimical to our in- 



JJ2 THE MASTERY OF THE EAR EAST 

terests should seize Canada, does any one imagine that the 
United States would be acquiescent? The Japanese had 
abundant reason to suspect the plans of Russia, and while 
it was to the temporary interest of the two nations to work 
in harmony, the Japanese did not propose to be caught 
napping if the political whirhgig should make another turn. 



PART III 

JAPAN— THE IMPERIAL POWER IN 
THE FAR EAST 



CHAPTER XIV 
JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE 

The rise of Japan is one of the startling phenomena of 
the age. Within the memory of men now Hving Japan was 
an obscure and miimportant Asiatic nation, whose people 
knew little and cared less about the Western world, and were 
still under the sway of age-old feudalism and superstition. 
Only a few Eiu-opeans had been seen, beginning with some 
wandering Portuguese, who are said to have arrived at 
Kyushu in the year 1530, and the Portuguese Pinto, who 
came in 1542. The first white men were hospitably re- 
ceived. Shortly after Francis Xavier arrived, in 1549, he 
wrote: "The nation with which we have to deal here sur- 
passes in goodness any of the nations ever discovered. 
They are of a kindly disposition, wonderfully desirous of 
honor, which is placed above everything else. They listen 
with great avidity to discourses about God and divine 
things." 

During the last quarter of the sixteenth century and the 
first half of the seventeenth, "the testimony of all writers 
is that the Japanese in their intercourse with foreigners were 
distinguished for high-bred courtesy combined with refined 
liberaHty and generous hospitahty. On the other hand, 
the merchants and mariners with whom they came in con- 
tact were usually of bad manners and morals, oveiTeaching, 
avaricious, and cruel; the missionaries were often arrogant, 
ambitious, and without proper respect for native customs; 
and the naval and other officials of foreign governments 
were haughty, actuated by a spirit of aggression, and un- 
mindful of the comity of nations. The history of the time 
shows that the policy of exclusion adopted by Japan in the 
seventeenth century was not inherent in the constitution of 
the state or the character of the people, but that it was 

225 



226 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

adopted in consequence of the unfavorable character of the 
relations with Europeans."^ 

Incensed by the overbearing conduct of the white men 
and alarmed by reports that the Roman Catholic mission- 
aries were poHtical emissaries of Western nations, the Japa- 
nese turned against the foreigners within their territory. 
Missionaries and traders were driven out, Japanese converts 
to Christianity were subjected to bloody persecution, severe 
laws were enacted forbidding foreigners to enter the coun- 
tiy or Japanese to leave it under pain of death, and fierce 
efforts were made to root out and exterminate every foreign 
influence, missionaiy and commercial. This period ex- 
tended down to 1853. During all those years Japan ap- 
peared to be hermetically sealed from the outside world. 

Americans are fond of saying that this isolation and stag- 
nation were broken up by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, 
who, March 31, 1854, concluded a treaty between Japan 
and the United States, the first of the links to bind Japan 
to Western nations. Many Japanese have given cordial 
testimony t6 the same effect; but Marquis Okuma has 
challenged this popular beUef and ascribed the first impulse 
toward modem civilization to the Russian Admiral Nicholas 
"Lizanoff" (Nicolai Petrovitch de Rezanov, 1764-1807), 
who visited Japan nearly half a century before Perry. 
Certain it is, however, that Commodore Perry's visit to 
Japan and the visit of a Japanese commission to America 
in 1860 marked the transition from the old to the new Japan, 
and the start of the nation on that road of progress on 
which it has since made such amazing strides. 

A period of internal commotion ensued. While some 
Japanese welcomed the new era, others reacted in fierce 
opposition. It is always thus in every land. Some men 
eagerly reach forward to the new, others cHng tenaciously 
to the old. In Japan the conflict between the progressive 
and conservative forces kept the country in a turmoil for 
a decade. The reactionary party rallied about the Shogun, 
the most powerful of the feudal lords and the commander- 

1 John W. Foster, American Diplomacy in the Orient, p. 12. 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE 227 

in-chief of the army, who had virtually usurped the govern- 
ment and reduced the Emperor not only to a position of 
nominal authority but of real subordination. The pro- 
gressive party rallied about the Emperor. The struggle 
culminated in 1868 in the overthrow of the Shogun and the 
restoration of the Emperor to his rightful place as reigning 
sovereign. 

The reconstruction of Japan upon modern lines promptly 
followed. The mere enumeration of the changes that were 
inaugurated profoundly impresses one: 1869 saw the tele- 
graph and the Charter Oath, which was to Japan almost 
what Magna Charta was to England; 1870 saw charted 
waters and lighthouses; and 1871, post-offices, postage- 
stamps, railways, newspapers, the downfall of feudalism 
and the founding of the Imperial University. In 1872, an 
imperial commission visited Europe and America to study 
Western institutions and methods and ascertain what they 
contained that would be beneficial to Japan. In 1873 the 
Christian calendar was adopted and the anti-Christian 
edicts were repealed. In 1877 a postal treaty was con- 
cluded with foreign nations. In 1880 the penal code was 
reorganized and prefectural assembHes were established. 
The year 1881 marked the first steps toward constitutional 
government, and February 11, 1889, the Constitution was 
formally promulgated, the first constitution to be adopted 
by any country in Asia. In 1897 the gold standard cur- 
rency was adopted. By 1899 Japan had made such pro- 
gress and had so gained the confidence of the world that, 
with the consent of the European and American govern- 
ments, the extra-territorial laws were abolished and Japan 
was recognized as one of the enlightened nations which 
could be tmsted to deal fairly with citizens of other nation- 
alities within her borders. 

Foreigners do not complain of any loss of privilege as a 
result of the treaties, which July 17, 1899, abolished their 
long-cherished rights of extra-territoriality and brought 
them under the jurisdiction of Japanese courts. The new 
treaties w^ent into effect without a jar. Both missionaries 



228 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

and business men assured me that they were as safe in their 
rights as ever, and that Japanese judges were rather in- 
cHned to favor them in their soUcitude that foreigners should 
have full justice in the courts. Indeed Americans in Japan 
have had less trouble than Japanese in the United States. 
Foreigners are free to travel or reside wherever they please, 
and they are perfectly safe in doing so if they behave them- 
selves. If they violate the law, a Japanese policeman will 
courteously but resolutely hale them before a Japanese 
magistrate, who with Uke courtesy and resolution will in- 
flict appropriate punishment. And the offender almost 
invariably richly deserves what he gets. 

To-day, all the tides of modern life are sweeping through 
Japan. Evidences of the new spirit which is stirring the 
nation are apparent on every hand. Tokyo, the political 
and intellectual centre of the nation, has become the largest 
city of Asia, and one of the influential cities of the world. 
Osaka is a great manufacturing city. The ports of Yoko- 
hama, Kobe, Nagasaki and Shimonoseki are crowded with 
the shipping of many lands. One would not expect to see 
much change in Kyoto, the artistic and Buddhistic heart of 
Japan, or in scenic and historic Nikko; but even in these 
places of venerable antiquity the traveller finds modem 
hotels and other indications of progress. The fine high- 
way, three miles in length connecting the two Shinto shrines 
in the sacred city of Yamada, is not surpassed by any road 
in Europe. The contrast with the Japan of 1850 is so great 
as to be well-nigh incredible. A nation that had never 
heard of steam as a motive power is now grid-ironed with 
six thousand miles of railways and is sending its merchant 
marine to the most distant lands. A nation that knew 
nothing of electricity uses telegraphs, telephones, trolley- 
cars, and motors of every kind. From small coasting junks 
to huge ocean steamers, from hand-looms to improved 
machinery, from sedan-chairs to railway-trains, from swords 
to magazine rifles and battleships, from a burning rag in a 
saucer of bean-oil to the brilliancy of electric fights, from 
memorizing Confucian classics to the study of modern sci- 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE 229 

ence, from national insignificance to world-power — and all 
this within a half dozen decades, leaping as it were at a 
bound over stages of development which other nations spent 
weary centuries in traversing — this is the amazing achieve- 
ment of Japan. Such a people is worthy of our careful 
study. 

Inquiry regarding the early history of Japan speedily 
brings the investigator to a point where facts are shrouded 
in myth and legend. Ethnologists have long speculated re- 
garding the origin of the curious white AinuS; of whom about 
17,600 still remain in Yezo and the Kurile Isles. Doctor 
William Elliot Griffis believes the Ainus to be of Aiyan 
stock. He gives an interesting account of their coming to 
prehistoric Japan, and shows how the Ainu and Yamato 
peoples struggled during two thousand years for supremacy 
until the fusion of races made the present Japanese nation. 
He places this prehistoric period prior to 552 A. D., and 
divides the subsequent history into four periods: militar^^ 
and civil conquest 552-1192; establishment of feudalism 
1192-1604; Yedo period of the Shogunate 1604-1868; Mi- 
kado period of modern development 1868-1900; and the 
period of world relationships 1900 to the present time. He 
declares that the conclusion of nearly thirty years of scien- 
tific investigation by native Japanese men of science is, in 
Professor Koganei^s verdict, that "the Mikado's realm was 
once an Ainu reahn"; and that his "own opinion is that the 
Ainu once occupied the whole archipelago of Japan. The 
oldest names of the mountains and rivers are not Japanese 
but Ainu. Made up of four of the strong races of mankind, 
Aryan, Semitic, Malay, and Tartar, there was no such thing 
as a Japanese nation until 1192 A. D,; and the fusion was 
not complete until much later. Increasing harmony among 
scholars, archaeologists, ethnologists, critical reading of the 
Kojiki, or ancient records, 712 A. D., all point to the fact 
that the basic stock of the Japanese of to-day is Ainu. 
That is, the Japanese are as much Aryan — whatever that 
may be — as any other stock perhaps on earth. Leaving 
diplomacy to settle political questions, let us hold to science. 



230 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

After forty-six years' study of the Japanese, I cannot but 
conceive of them as a non-Mongolian people. '* Doctor 
Kazutami Ukita, Professor of History in Waseda Univer- 
sity, Japan, holds substantially the same view, character- 
izing the Ainus as "of an ancient Caucasian origin in race, 
the descendants of those who did not assimilate with the 
Japanese in the main island . . . gentle, honest and kind 
though backward in civilization.'' He says that "they can 
be called the American Indians of the Far East," although 
his description of their temperament hardly fits that of the 
American aborigines. 

Professor Edward S. Morse, formerly professor in the 
Imperial University, Tokyo, vigorously challenges the theory 
of Aiyan origin. He holds that the Ainus were the original 
inhabitants of Japan, or at any rate the only ones that are 
known, and that they are not Aryans at all; that the an- 
cestors of the modem Japanese were Mongolians who came 
from the mainland of Asia by way of Korea; that Japanese 
civilization is essentially MongoHan; that there has been 
some admixture of Ainu blood, possibly of Malay and per- 
haps of North American Indian, which was near in Alaska; 
but that these strains had no appreciable effect upon the 
national type.^ 

We may leave to experts this vexed question of ethnologi- 
cal and antiquarian research ; and readers who wish to delve 
deeply into it may find ample material in their writings.^ 
Our present concern is with the Japan of more recent days. 
Suffice it here that the definitely known history of Japan is 
far less ancient than that of India, China, and even Europe, 
and that when the nation emerged from the mists of the 
prehistoric era, it was composed of several discordant ele- 
ments which were a long time in solidifying into the com- 
pact body with which the world is now familiar. Professor 
Basil H. Chamberlain declares that it is one of the certain 

^ Address, November 24, 1911. 

^History of the Japanese People, by Captain Frank Brinkley; Japan and 
Japanese- American Relations (Proceedings of Conference at Clark University, 
November, 1910); History of Japan, by Murdock; The Mikado's Empirej 
by W. E. Griffis; The Aiim of Japan, by John Batchelor. 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE 



231 



results of investigation that the first gHmmer of genuine 
Japanese history dates from the fifth century after Christ; 
that the accounts of what happened in the sixth century 
must be received with caution ; and that back of that period, 
we enter the realm of national mythology and legends, char- 
acterized by miraculous impossibilities and chronology pal- 
pably fraudulent.^ 

Modern Japan has passed considerably beyond the limits 
of ancient Japan in territory as w^ell as population, as the 
following table shows: 





AREA IN 
SQUARE MILES 


POPULATION 


Japan proper 


148,756 
84,738 
13,944 
13,253 


56,860,735 

16,913,224 

3,710,848 

95,194 


Korea 


Taiwan (Formosa) 


TCarafuto (Japanese Saghalien). . , . . . 


260,691 


77,580,001 



Tokyo, the capital, with 2,033,320 inhabitants, is the 
metropolis of the Far East. Osaka is the second city of 
Japan, with 1,387,366, and Kyoto follows with 508,068. A 
half-dozen other cities are of good size and are rapidly 
growing. Twelve million six himdred and sixty-nine thou- 
sand six hundred and thirty-five people five in cities of 
more than 10,000 inhabitants, according to the last census. 

The average number of foreigners residing in Japan in 
recent years is about 18,000, of whom approximately three- 
fifths are Chinese, and the remainder British, German, 
American, French, and Russian in the order named, al- 
though the number of Germans was greatly lessened during 
the European War. The territory of Japan proper is smaller 
than that of California, but its population is twenty-one 
times larger. If we imagine half the people of the United 
States packed into California, we shall have an idea of 
the density of population in Japan. The situation is anal- 

1 Article in The Japan Weekly Mail, December 23, 1911. 



232 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

ogous to that of the British Islands, which, with an area 
of 121,633 square miles, has 45,370,530 inhabitants. The 
combined area of Japan and all its dependencies is less than 
that of Texas, but the population is sixteen times greater. 

To the visitor Japan is one of the most attractive coun- 
tries in the world. One can never forget the charm of its 
hospitality, the neatness of the homes and villages, and the 
courageous energy with which the people are grappling with 
their new and difficult problems. The first view lives long 
in one^s memoiy — the serrated mountains shaiply outlined 
against the sky; the thatched houses of the villages nestling 
at their feet; the neatly divided plots of rice-fields on the 
lowlands; the gleaming water of the bay dotted by quaint 
sampans sculled by half-naked boatmen; the island made 
famous by the landing of Commodore Perr}^ in 1853; the 
grim fortifications guarding the harbor entrance; and, as 
we steam slowly onward, the busy city of Yokohama, with 
its modern buildings and the countless fumiels and masts 
of its world-wide commerce; while, towering above all, the 
snow-covered monarch of this matchless scene, is majestic 
Fujiama, the sacred mountain of Japan. 

Closer acquaintance deepens the favorable first impres- 
sion. Physically, Japan is veiy beautiful — a land of hills 
and valleys, of mshing streams and rich bottom-lands. 
Kanazawa is one of the scenic cities of the world, while 
the view from the mountain above the Bay of Tsugaru 
amply repays a journey across Japan. ^'Do not use the 
word magnificent until you have seen Nikko" is a Japanese 
proverb which many a visitor has echoed. The trip from 
Tokyo to the mountain resort of Kamizawa will never be 
forgotten by one who has taken it, and the railway journey 
from Kyoto to Tsu is through a region of fascinating beauty. 
Foreign residents have grown weary of the praises of Fu- 
jiama; but Americans are forever telling of Niagara Falls 
and Europeans of Mt. Blanc, and why should not Japanese 
love and revere their royal mountain? We were so fortu- 
nate as to be in Japan in the famous cherry-blossom season. 
The trees are not cultivated for their fruit, but simply from 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE 233 

love of the beautiful the people have set out so many that 
their cities and villages are literally abloom with the deh- 
cate pink and white flowers. When to these are added the 
deeper tints of the peach and camellia^ the purple of violets, 
the white and purple of stately magnolias, and the rich 
yellow of the fields of rape-seed, the traveller feels as if he 
were in some vast conservatory. 

The high cultivation of the soil adds to the effect. Not a 
weed is permitted to grow. Not a foot of available land is 
wasted. Even the hillsides are terraced to the very sum- 
mits, sometimes by almost incredible labor. Rice is the 
staple product wherever the land can be flooded. But we 
saw many fields of wheat, sowed not broadcast as in America, 
but in rows which are carefully hoed. Considerable space 
is devoted to rape-seed, from which oil is extracted for both 
cooking and illuminating, while vegetable-gardens, tea- 
bushes, mulberry-trees, and a species of palm are often seen. 
The fields are pleasantest from a respectful distance, as dis- 
agreeable refuse is the favorite fertilizer. Even in Tokyo, 
at the time of our visit, there were no sewers except street- 
gutters, but every scrap of household waste was scrupu- 
lously preserved in earthen jars and collected every morning 
for use on the farms and gardens. 

Sanitary laws are strict and are enforced with varying 
degrees of energy. Epidemics are carefully guarded against. 
In Osaka, we saw municipal house-cleaning on a large scale. 
A suspicion that bubonic plague was present having injured 
the business of the city, the suspected quarter was visited 
by a swarm of inspectors who entered every house, removed 
furniture, took up matting, pulled down ceilings and swept 
out dirt, while the unhappy inhabitants looked on in help- 
less dismay. The streets were filled with the smoke of the 
burning debris. Factory conditions are not so well watched, 
as we shall have later occasion to note. 

Japanese conceptions of comfort differ from ours. Their 
houses are scantily furnished. There are no beds, the Japa- 
nese simply spreading their quilts on the matting which 
covers the floor. Chairs are unknown except in a few 



234 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Europcanized homes. People sit on the floor with their 
legs under them in a way which a foreigner soon finds in- 
tolerably painful. The railway-cars in which we travelled 
had seats, but we were usually the only persons in them 
whose feet were on the floor. Our fellow passengers had 
slipped off their sandals and tucked their feet under them 
on the seats. 

The village Japanese are a cleanly people after their 
manner, but that is somewhat peculiar from a Western view- 
point. The hotels conducted for foreigners in the ports 
and the larger cities of the interior have all modem con- 
veniences; but in the smaller towns the inns are '* native 
style. '^ The bathtubs — wooden boxes with little stoves 
on one side — are filled with water in the morning, and when 
guests arrive the fire is started, soon making the water hot 
enough to stew one. When the first arrival has bathed, the 
thrifty proprietor has no idea of wasting all that hot water, 
nor does the next guest expect him to do so. So the new- 
comer willingly bathes in the same water. Later guests do 
likewise, and the last traveller, if he is a foreigner, discreetly 
decides to postpone his bath until the next morning. The 
Japanese do not regard it as good form to use soap in such 
a bathtub as it would discolor the water for subsequent 
users. Unhappily, I did not know this when I reached my 
first inn, and as I was covered with the dust of a hot jour- 
ney, I fear that I gave the next bather reason to use strong 
language. 

Neither houses, schools, nor public buildings are ade- 
quately heated. Furnaces are almost unknown, and the 
scanty warmth of a few pieces of charcoal is poor protec- 
tion against the chill winds that easily find their way 
through the lightly built walls and loosely fitting doors and 
windows. The ordinary dress of both sexes is cut so low 
in the neck as to expose the upper part of the chest. How- 
ever abundant the body clothing may be, the legs are often 
bare below the knees, and sockless feet are thrust into the 
straps of straw or wooden sandals, not only in summer but 
in winter. As I wrote on the train wath my overcoat 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE 235 

closely buttoned, the bare feet and ankles of a three-year- 
old child peeped from under the folds of an apparently ex- 
pensive dress. Of the 193 people whom I had the curiosity 
to count in a few minutes on the streets of Tokyo, 130 were 
either barefooted or wore only a sandal which protected 
the sole from pebbles; 59 had a thin white cotton cloth 
wrapped around the foot, the calf of the leg often being 
bare; and only 4 wore European shoes. 

It is a mistake to suppose that this habitual exposure so 
hardens the people that they suffer no ill effects. It may 
indeed dull their sensibilities to some extent, but it does 
not relieve them from the consequences. Half the chil- 
dren I saw had colds. Throat and lung diseases are alarm- 
ingly prevalent and tuberculosis is the scourge of Japan. 

In the Japanese code of good manners it is considered 
bad form to show emotion. One must not storm in anger or 
sob in grief. Stoical self-control when others are excited, 
an impassive countenance when imder critical observation 
— these are Japanese virtues. The more mercurial Korean 
and most white men manifest their feelings in their faces. 
Not so the Japanese. They are, as a rule, outwardly calm, 
although they may be inwardly boiling. It is not always 
prudent, therefore, to infer their real sentiments from their 
public manner. This is not hypocrisy ; it results from their 
conviction that a self-respecting man does not parade his 
private sentiments before strangers. 

And yet the people are the most charming of Orientals to 
meet, if we may judge from our experience. We travelled 
many himdreds of miles in Japan, mingled with the crowds 
in cities and villages, visited shops, offices, factories, homes, 
Buddhist, Shinto, and Christian places of worship, schools 
of all kinds and even military posts; and we were uniformly 
treated with the utmost courtesy. I did not see a fight in 
Japan, and a drunken man only once. Nobody was rude, 
but every one was smilingly polite and ready to show every 
kindness. 

The traveller is sometimes misled by this universal 
politeness^ for it occasionally leads the Japanese to smile 



23G THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

affably and bow assent to his questions whether they under- 
stand him or not. You ask whether the post-office '4s on 
this street/' and when you receive what you regard as a 
pleasant affirmation in reply^ you tramp contentedly on- 
ward, only to find later that the post-office is not on that 
street. The Japanese did not mean to deceive you, but he 
did not understand you. He was too polite to tell you 
that you had not made your meaning clear, so he courteously 
expressed assent. 

It is said that two American women aw^oke one night 
to find a burglar standing at the foot of their bed. He 
suavely asked for money. The frightened ladies said that 
all their money was locked up, that they were American 
ladies and could not get out of bed when a man was in 
the room, but that if he would step out while they dressed, 
they would get the money for him. The burglar actually 
compHed with the request, going out of the room and 
nearly closing the door, simply keeping one foot in the 
opening, ''not necessarily for publication but merely as a 
guarantee of good faith," while the modest maidens arrayed 
themselves for such nocturnal company. Then he again 
entered. By this time, however, the nerves of one of the 
young women gave way in a scream, whereupon the burglar 
snatched the pocketbook and ran, doubtless distressed that 
he was under the disagreeable necessity of acting so rudely. 

The national poHteness, while veiy delightful to the 
traveller, does not necessarily argue superior moral qualities. 
The characteristic vices of Japan are substantially the 
same as those of Europe and America, and some of them 
are far more general. If the excitable Anglo-Saxon goes 
wrong, he is apt to make himself a nuisance in public, 
where he attracts instant attention. The Japanese is 
more even-tempered and prides himself on concealing his 
emotions; but in his code of morals, certain vices are not 
reckoned so heinous as we reckon them. But this subject 
belongs in another chapter. 

The Japan of to-day is a curious mixture of the antique 
and the modern. I saw a man riding a new bicycle, wear- 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE 237 

ing a derby hat, cutaway coat, shirt, collar, cuffs and neck- 
tie; but his single loose lower garment streamed behind 
him exposing a pair of bare legs, and his feet were naked 
save for clumsy wooden sandals. He was a type that we 
saw in many other cities. European dress, however, has 
become common in the capital and port cities. I found a 
number of high officials, including Prince Ito, in frock 
coats, and these garments and silk hats are numerous among 
the guests at the best social functions. 

FaciHties for intercommunication are well developed. 
Eight daily newspapers in English and over three hundred 
in Japanese have growing circulations. The leading cities 
have street-cars, telegraphs and telephones, electric lights, 
government and commercial buildings of modem architec- 
ture, and streets so hard and smooth and clean as to excite 
wonder and admu-ation. 

The prevalence of EngHsh signs is a great convenience to 
the Western traveller. One rarely sees Russian, German 
or French signs, but EngHsh are numerous. Railway-tickets 
are printed in EngHsh on one side and Japanese on the 
other. At the stations the names of the towns are printed 
in Japanese and EngHsh. On the cars the designations of 
class and destination are given in both EngHsh and Japa- 
nese. English notices teU you not to put your head out 
of the window and not to stand on the platform. Some- 
times the wording is rather odd, as when one is warned: 
"No admission to enter," but the meaning is usually 
clear. 

The efforts of Japanese shopkeepers to attract EngHsh 
visitors result in some amusing struggles with our lan- 
guage. Every returning traveUer brings a sheaf of stories 
to chuckle over with his friends. You observe that in one 
place "Printiny is Done,'' and that in another '^ Drugs 
Apothecary SeU." A sign on a tailor's shop hospitably 
announces that "Respectable Ladies and Gentlemen are 
Invited to come in and have Fits." An express-office truly 
says that "Baggage is Sent in Every Direction"; a fur 
dealer's sign vouchsafes the disquieting information that 



238 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

''Furs are Made from our Skin or Yours; '^ and an antique 
shop naively admits that "Antique Curios are Bought, 
Sold and Made." A Japanese in applying to a London 
newspaper for a position as correspondent from Japan, after 
describing in detail his other qualifications, added: "As for 
my knowledge of EngHsh and capacity of journalistic work, 
I cannot myself say much for them, but you may perhaps 
be able to roughly estimate them by these lines. With 
regard to my personal reliability and honest character I 
can, however, unscrupulously vouchsafe them." If we are 
disposed to smile at such mistakes, we may discreetly re- 
member that even the courtesy and impassivity of the 
Japanese countenance are often severely taxed to keep from 
uproarious laughter over the worse blunders of Americans 
in tiying to use the Japanese language. 

Thousands of educated Japanese speak English with 
accuracy, and many thousands more are acquiring it. At 
all the leading hotels and railway-stations and on most of 
the trains, we found one or more Japanese who spoke Eng- 
lish, and an American or Englishman who knows no lan- 
guage but his own seldom has any serious difficulty in 
travelling about the country. Indeed English is now being 
taught in the public schools and in the universities, and 
lecturers from the West can find audiences to which they 
can deliver their message without an interpreter. 

The railway service is excellent. Five thousand four 
hundred and seventy-two miles of track in a country so 
limited in area afford good transportation facilities. First, 
second, and third class cars are run on most trains; but there 
is not so much difference in the equipment of the cars as 
in the number of passengers. A fare of one sen (half a cent) 
a mile crowds the third class cars with the lowest classes. 
A two-sen rate gives reasonable comfort in the second-class 
cars with their long upholstered side-seats and lavatories. 
We foimd this class quite satisfactory, with middle-class 
Japanese, line officers of the army, and missionaries as typi- 
cal fellow-passengers. The first-class cars attract only a 
very few persons who are willing to pay three sen a mile 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE 230 

for the probability of having a compartment largely to 
themselves. There is none of the fussy calling for tickets 
every horn- or two that is such a nuisance on American rail- 
ways. The passenger shows his ticket to the gateman be- 
fore entering the train, and to the guard that he may know 
the class, and that is the end of it till the ticket is surren- 
dered at the gate after leaving the train at the destination. 
There is no separate compartment for smoking, but both 
sexes smoke incessantly in the cars of all classes. 

The popular mode of local conveyance is the jinrikisha, 
a tiny, light, two-wheeled affair, seating one person, and 
whose invention the American Griffis attributes to a Japa- 
nese and the Japanese Nitobe to an American named Goble. 
I mentally doff my hat as I think of the men who draw it. 
Of the scores that I used at various times the typical one 
wore even in cold weather a single, close-fitting cotton 
upper garment, thin, tight, very short drawers, and straw 
sandals. He could not have weighed more than a hundred 
and fifteen pounds, while the jinrikisha and I together tipped 
the beam at over two hundred. But that little fellow drew 
me five miles at a fast trot, which slowed into a walk only 
a few minutes at a particularly steep place. I gasped 
when I learned that the fare was sixteen sen (eight cents). 
I felt ashamed to pay him such a sum; but my host ad- 
vised me not to give more, saying that the prices are now 
much higher than formerly, and that soft-hearted visitors 
make things harder for residents. In Kanazawa we rode 
up a long hill in a cold, heavy rain. When I asked the charge 
the men, with smiles and bows and profuse apologies, said 
that they would have to ask for more than the usual rate 
because of the storm. What was that extra charge? Nine 
rin — ^less than half a cent of American money. We used 
scores of jinrikishas in various parts of the empire, and 
we invariably found the men patient, polite, good-natured 
and with amazing powers of endurance. Colonel Davis, of 
Kyoto, laughed when I spoke of their runs with me, and 
said that they often made fifty miles a day. I have bumped 
my head often enough in entering their doors to give me 



240 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

painful proof that the Japanese are a small race; but their 
bodies are all bone and sinew. 

It is about as difficult to get an unprejudiced and dispas- 
sionate opinion of the Japanese people as it is to get one of 
Theodore Roosevelt, William Jennings Bryan, or Lloyd 
George. Each obsei'ver is prone to look through the haze 
which has been created by his own imagination, and he 
glorifies or defames in accordance with his preconceived 
ideas. Some writers laud the Japanese with fulsome 
eulogy, magnifying their virtues and minimizing their vices 
— a nation of saints before whose perfection Europeans and 
Americans should veil their faces in shame. I have Hstened 
to adulatoiy speeches of this kind which, if I were a sensible 
Japanese, I would deprecate as flattery too gross to be pleas- 
ant or helpful. Other writers exhaust their vocabulary in 
denunciation and abuse, alleging that the real Japan is not 
what Americans innocently imagine it to be, but ^^the Japan 
of farms and factories and fishermen, ruled by a little group 
of ambitious statesmen, and dominated by the imperialistic 
aims which dominated Germany^'; that ''in Japan we see 
a power still partially under the influence of barbaric tra- 
ditions of warfare and conquest, and yet possessed of all 
the weapons and powers of the most enlightened countries'^; 
that "she maintains a double standard of conduct — one 
for use with strong nations, the other for use with weak 
ones''; that ''her boasted progress has consisted in imitating 
the inventions and discoveries of Western nations" ; and that 
"we should beware of the reports of American visitors to 
Japan who have been dined and flattered, and in some cases 
decorated by the Emperor, until they have been hypno- 
tized and have returned to America to spread rosy impres- 
sions of a Japan whose virtues and good intentions exist 
only in their own imaginations." ^ 

It is undeniable that the world's sympathy with Japan 
has materially lessened since the war with Russia. This 
may be due in part to the fact that it is human nature to 
sympathize with the under man, and that the mingled ad- 

* Quotations are from Japan and America, by Carl Crow. 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE 241 

miration and pity which were evoked by the spectacle of a 
Httle nation attacking mighty Russia were no longer needed 
when the little nation emerged as proud victor. Western 
nations began to realize, too, that the war had made Japan 
a factor in world problems and a rival in the Far East 
which must hereafter be reckoned with; and there was some 
disquietude as to whether the new rival would introduce 
additional complications. Triumphant, imperial Japan, 
proposing to be mistress of the Pacific Ocean, and with an 
army and navy which enable her to make the claim good, 
is not so appealing an object to grow sentimental over as 
a small country fighting for its Hfe against one three times 
its size. 

The wrath of numerous war correspondents has been 
another factor in the change of pubhc sentiment. They 
eagerly flocked to the Far East at the outbreak of hostilities 
with Russia, only to find their high hopes for good copy 
destroyed by polite but inexorable Japanese oflacials, who 
kept them cooling their heels several hundred miles from 
the front. The sternly practical Orientals were not playing 
to the galleries of Europe and America. They were making 
grim war and they gave scant heed to ambitious joumaHsts. 
Indeed it was feared that with the Russia-Japan War the 
era of war correspondents passed. Governments would not 
permit inquisitive and ubiquitous reporters to herald their 
plans and movements to the world, and therefore to the 
enemy. The resultant emotions of the correspondents 
could not be expressed in anything short of the vocabulary 
of Billy Sunday's objurgations of the devil. As these war 
correspondents included influential writers who ha.d free 
access to the columns of the greatest daily newspapers and 
magazines, the effect was soon apparent. 

We need not ascribe this criticism wholly to pique. 
Writers of such character cannot be lightly dismissed. 
Prior to the Russia-Japan War Americans and EngUshmen 
saw everything Japanese through a glamour of cherry- 
blossoms, cloisonne, Satsimia ware, quaint temples, ancient 
palaces, polite men, daintily smiling girls, romantic glens 



242 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

and snowy Fujiama. It was the land of poetry, beauty and 
art. Mr. Thomas F. Millard declares that the accounts of 
it which were so widely published in Europe and America 
were the output of the most skilful and systematic press 
bureau in the world, and that nearly all of the news that 
reached English-speaking readers came through that press 
bureau, whose deUberate intent was to extol everything 
Japanese and decry eveiything Russian. We are told that 
the closer and more independent knowledge that we have 
gained since the war has dispelled the glamour and revealed 
the Japanese in their true light. The reports given by Mr. 
Millard and Mr. F. A. McKenzie of their personal observa- 
tions in Korea, after the Japanese were in full control, are 
grewsome reading,^ and Price Collier felt moved to exclaim 
that "it is an open question whether England's hypocritical 
and short-sightedly selfish aUiance with these varnished 
savages has not done more to menace Saxon civilization, 
both in Europe and America, than any diplomatic step that 
has been taken for centuries." ^ 

For myself, while not blind to the faults of the Japanese, 
I deplore such indiscriminate condemnation of them. If 
they are not the lovely fairies that Lafcadio Hearn pictured 
them, neither are they the "varnished savages'' that Price 
Collier called them. From the huge mass of available data 
it is not difficult to make a selection that will apparently 
support almost any preconceived idea. But conclusions 
obtained in that way are one-sided. They leave some facts 
out of accoimt, and state others in ways which make them 
appear more unfavorable than they really are. If one is 
to err at all, it is better to do so on the side of charity, to 
magnify good qualities rather than to minimize them. It is 
unreasonable to expect an Asiatic people to exemplify 
within sixty years standards of Christian character and con- 
duct which Europe and America but imperfectly exemplify 
after fifteen hundred years. The Japanese have many fine 
qualities. They also have some grave defects. So have 

^ McKenzie, The Unveiled East ; Millard, The New Far East. 
2 England aiid the English, p. 243. 



JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE 243 

we. It is easy to pick out flaws in any people under heaven, 
including our own. After all, the Japanese are human 
beings Hke ourselves, and in thinking of them we may well 
remember the words of the poet Bailey: 

"Men might be better if we better deemed of them.'* 



CHAPTER XV 
FUNDAMENTAL NATIONAL DISTINCTIONS 

The superficial observer is apt to comment upon the 
essential similarity of the peoples of Japan, Korea, and 
China. It is true that there are points of resemblance. 
When dressed alike it is not always easy for a traveller to 
distinguish them. Certain maimers and customs are similar, 
too, as well as some religious beliefs, and a general type of 
mind which may be called Oriental and Asiatic as distin- 
guished from Occidental and European or American. 
Nevertheless, there are fundamental distinctions that must 
be borne in mind if the characteristics and problems of 
these three peoples are to be rightly understood. I do not 
refer now to physical distinctions, but to psychological ones, 
the real things wherein Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans 
really differ. 

The keynote of Japan is solidarity. The individual is 
nothing; the nation is everything. The Japanese move as 
a imit in politics, in war, in commerce, and in the daily 
activities of life. How far back this characteristic runs is 
a disputed question. Baron I^uchi, President of the Im- 
perial University in Kyoto, in an address in New York in 
1910, emphasized the imity of the nation through a tradi- 
tional succession of twenty-five unbroken centuries of a 
single dynasty in relation to a people who regard it with 
profound veneration. The Japanese appear to be com- 
pletely under the spell of this fascinating conception. They 
insist upon the indissoluble relation of modem Japan to 
ancestral Japan, of the ancestors of the people to the an- 
cestors of the imperial house. It is not simply the rela- 
tion of present Japan to its ancestors, but of many centuries 
of Japanese to many centuries of imperial rulers, the soH- 
darity of a nation persisting through the ages. 

Professor Basil H. Chamberlain, however, scoffs at this 

244 



FUNDAMENTAL NATIONAL DISTINCTIONS 245 

claim of the Japanese. He says: '^The sober fact is that 
no nation probably has ever treated its sovereigns more 
cavaherly than the Japanese have done, from the beginning 
of authentic history down to within the memory of living 
men. Emperors have been deposed, emperors have been 
assassinated; for centuries every succession to the throne 
was the signal for intrigues and sanguinary broils. ... 
An analysis of mediseval Japanese histor}^ shows that the 
great feudal houses, so far from displaying an excessive 
idealism in the matter of fealty to one emperor, one lord, 
or one party, had evolved the eminently practical plan of 
letting their different members take different sides, so that 
the family as a whole might come out as winner in any 
event, and thus avoid the confiscation of its lands." 

He proceeds to argue that the whole superstructure of 
alleged Japanese unity and emperor-worship is of modern 
creation — a purely manufactured article devised by astute 
leaders who see that their ambitions to make this com- 
paratively small nation a first-class power in the world 
cannot be realized unless they can weld the people into a 
compact mass that will be absolutely amenable to their 
leadership, and can be handled as a solid body in all its 
relations with other nations. 

Whatever may be the antiquity of this national solidarity, 
its present existence and power cannot be doubted. An- 
cient or modern, natural or manufactured, no one can un- 
derstand the Japanese who fails to take it into account — 
a solemn, mystical, and yet tremendously real and vital 
fact. The submergence of the individual in the mass, the 
knitting of the entire body of the people into one com- 
munalistic system, has no parallel in history, unless it be 
among the ancient Peruvians. Lafcadio Hearn knew and 
loved old Japan, but he wrote: '^Personahty has been 
wholly suppressed by coercion, the life of every individual 
being so ordered by the will of the rest as to render free 
action, free speaking, free thinking out of the question. . . . 
With implacable minuteness, with ferocity of detail, every- 
thing was ordained for him, even to the quality of his foot- 



24G THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

gear, the cost of his wife^s hair-pin, and the price of his 
child^s doll. . . . The result was to suppress all mental 
and moral differentiation, to numb personality, to establish 
one uniform and imchanging type of character. To this 
day every Japanese mind reveals the lines of that antique 
mould by which the ancestral mind was compressed and 
hmited." 

The degree to which this characteristic influences modern 
Japan may be partly due to the fact that feudalism con- 
tinued in Japan until a later period than in any other na- 
tion, having been aboHshed only a few decades ago. But 
while feudahsm has disappeared as a political system, its 
spirit has been merged into the larger and more absolute 
feudalism of the State, one vast system having taken the 
place of several smaller ones. Among themselves, indeed, 
the Japanese have differed, and they now differ. There are 
clans and political parties which sometimes fiercely dispute. 
In recent years these parties have become more outspoken 
in the press and in the Imperial Diet. But Western gov- 
ernments will be grievously mistaken if they proceed on 
the assumption that in all international affairs the Japa- 
nese will not act as a compact and well-disciplined unit. 

The Western world marvelled when Admiral Togo, in 
his famous telegram after the defeat of the Russian fleet, 
modestly ascribed his victory ^^ to the virtue of the Emperor" 
and "the protection of his ancestors," and "not to the ac- 
tion of any human being." Western men said: Is it pos- 
sible that an intelligent Japanese, who had had a modern 
education and who is said to be in sympathy with Chris- 
tianity, could make a statement of that kind? But Ad- 
miral Togo was as intelligible to the Japanese as Moses was 
to the victorious Hebrews when he exclaimed: "I will sing 
unto Jehovah for He hath triumphed gloriously." The 
Emperor is conceived, not as an individual temporarily at 
the head of the country, but as the supreme incarnation of 
the communal life, the spirit and tradition and power of 
the nation, the "Son of Heaven," whose government is an 
integral part of "a line of Emperors unbroken from ages 



FUNDAMENTAL NATIONAL DISTINCTIONS 247 

eternal," as the first aii^icle of the ConvStitution declares. 
Speaking of the Mikado as the centre of the nation, I-Ichiro 
Tokutomi says: "Considered as a body politic it has him 
as its sovereign, considered as a distinct race it has him as 
its leader, considered as a social coromunity it has him as 
its nucleus.'^ 

In a very real sense, therefore, says Doctor William Elliot 
Griffis, "the victories of Oyama and Togo were not theirs 
but the nation's. They were literally the result of all the 
past life and training of the whole people. Admiral or field- 
marshal, like every individual sailor and soldier, considers 
himself as but a cog in the mighty wheel that grinds out 
results. As life has value only in the line of duty and is 
worthless outside of loyalty and right doing, so also the 
issue of victory is that in which personaUty is sunk utterly. 
The ^brilHant virtue' of the Mikado is not a stock phrase, 
a figment of imagination; it is a soul-nerving reaUty; it is 
Japan's grandest asset. Neither the Mikado nor his people 
would be what they are except for Hhe spirits of the an- 
cestors.' Togo's statement is in harmony with all Japanese 
history, with literal fact as determined by critical analysis, 
as well as with sentiment, art, poetry, mythology, tradition, 
Bushido (the knightly code), and all that goes to make up 
the world of thought and subconscious motive in the minds 
of men that fought the battle of the Sea of Japan. Togo 
could make no other answer. No true son of Nippon is 
likely for generations to come to express his thoughts other- 
wise. Be he Confucian, Shintoist, Buddhist, or Christian 
in religion, be he of this or that philosophy in vogue among 
us Occidentals, he will ascribe no glory of Japanese victory 
to 'any human being' but to the virtue of the Mikado and 
to the spirits of his imperial ancestors." 

The early literature of ancient Japan aboimds in senti- 
ments of veneration for the Emperor, such as: "Never die 
unless for the sake of the Emperor"; and when the late 
Emperor lay dying, weeping and praying multitudes pros- 
trated themselves befoi«e the palace gates for whole days 
and nights, unmoved alike by heat of sun and fall of rain. 



248 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

The keynote of China is the direct opposite of this: it is 
individualism. The Chinese as a man is industrious and 
capable, often masterful, and able to compete with any 
other man in the world. But he does not take naturally to 
co-operative enterprises. He is not good in team-work. 
The Chinese are individually strong but collectively weak. 
They are deficient in organization. Everywhere in China 
you see evidences of this characteristic. Conmiercially, 
although the Chinese are the best business men in Asia, 
it is difficult to form a large Chinese corporation which can 
hold together and do efficient work. Politically, there is a 
conspicuous absence of centralization. The Emperor was 
traditionally venerated as the Son of Heaven; but the peo- 
ple regarded him as an alien Manchu and they chafed under 
his rule. The nation was honeycombed with anti-dynastic 
societies which were continually plotting the overthrow of 
the Emperor and his whole line. When the revolution was 
accomplished a repubh'c was declared under a presidency 
which had five incumbents in half a dozen years. Indi- 
viduaHsm characterizes the nation. Village Hfe is largely 
communal under local elders; but, taking China as a whole, 
it is every man for himself. 

Thus there is none of that sense of national unity which 
is so evident in Japan. The people of the south know little 
and care less about the people of the north. The inhabi- 
tants of Szechuan are almost as far removed in sympathy 
from those of Fuh-kien as if they belonged to different na- 
tions. If a war breaks out, large sections of the country 
are indifferent. It is a matter for the Peking officials and 
the governors of the provinces attacked; let them attend to" 
it. Probably many of the Chinese people never knew that 
there was a war between China and Japan in 1894, and those 
who did know cared Httle more than if the war had been 
between Germany and Japan. If a foreign Power were to 
obtain possession of a Japanese port, it would not be able 
to hire a coolie in all Japan to fortify it; but when the 
Germans seized Kiao-chou Bay in 1897, although the 
province of Shantung was thrown into great alarm, the 



FUNDAMENTAL NATIONAL DISTINCTIONS 249 

German admiral had no difficulty in emplo3'^ing thousands 
of Chinese to make the German position impregnable 
against the Chinese. In like manner the Russians^ when 
they took Port Arthur under an agreement which they 
extorted from the Chinese Government; found it easy to 
employ 60^000 coolies to construct their defenses, while the 
foreign legations in Peking fortified themselves by the aid 
of Chinese laborers within rifle-shot of the imperial palace. 

China is a loose aggregation of units rather than a solid- 
ified nation. Governors and viceroys are virtually inde- 
pendent rulers who have their own mints, their own mihtary 
force, and who do about as they please as long as they send 
tribute to Peking. The Japanese Government directs its 
individual subjects and supports them in their enterprises; 
but the government of China leaves its subjects to shift 
for themselves. Perhaps this is due in part to the density 
of population, which makes the struggle for existence fiercer 
than anywhere else, and develops a callous selfishness as 
well as a spirit of self-reliance. 

This individualism is one of the reasons why the present 
transformation in China is so significant. The new influ- 
ences which are at work are affecting the essential genius 
of Chinese life. They are revolutionizing fimdamental 
thoughts and relationships. Railways and telegraphs are 
making possible intercommunication and a knowledge of 
other parts of the country and are tending to develop a 
consciousness of unity which have never existed before. 
And herein is large ground for hope. The reform move- 
ments in China are essentially movements of the people. 
The government did not lead them; it was indeed far be- 
hind. A popular movement on so vast a scale will proba- 
bly prove as irresistible as the similar movement was in 
Europe, for it will mean that the new order, when once 
estabhshed, will be firmly based on the consent of the 
nation. 

In Japan, on the other hand, the government is leading 
the reconstructive movements and the people are far in the 
rear. The whole modem development is directed by a 



250 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

comparatively small group of leaders who are more or less 
blindly followed by the masses of the population. These 
leaders are men of splendid ability, and their ideas are 
gradually making their way down among the common 
people; but it will be a long time yet before the majority 
of the people of Japan will assert themselves as a real 
governing force. History shows that such a situation is 
not altogether reassuring. It is a great thing for advance 
movements to have the prestige of official leadership; but 
unless there is wide popular support based on intelligent 
pubHc sentiment; changes in personnel may at any time 
result in an alteration of policy. The increasing number 
of men in the upper classes who have caught the spirit of 
the modern world encourage the hope that no reaction will 
set in; but if it ever should come, the solidarity of the 
nation will make it a serious matter. I shall refer in a 
later chapter to the fact that underneath the autocratic 
party that is now in control, a progressive party is already 
developing and that its growth promises much for the 
future. 

The keynote of Korea is not so easily stated in one word. 
We might call it subjectivity. The people are less virile, 
less ambitious, less independent in spirit. They revered 
their Emperor in a general way, but with none of that 
passionate devotion which characterizes the Japanese. 
Any Japanese will gladly give his life for his Emperor, and 
this is one reason why Japan is such a formidable military 
power. The entire nation fights, and fights to the death 
for the Emperor who incarnates the national ideals. Such 
a sentiment is utterly foreign to the Chinese mind. The 
Korean occupies a middle position in this respect. Some 
devoted officials committed suicide when their Emperor 
was humiliated; but this spirit did not characterize the 
people as a whole. Even in the most patriotic Korean the 
normal feeling was one of wounded national pride, because 
a foreigner mled, rather than of special attachment to the 
Emperor. The Korean has so long been oppressed, he 
feels so helpless between the mighty nations about him, 



FUNDAMEiNTAL NATIONAL DISTINCTIONS 251 

that he has settled into ahnost apathetic despair. Indi- 
viduals have made heroic struggles, but the people as a 
whole have so long acquiesced in the inevitable that a cer- 
tain state of mind has resulted. The decisive methods of 
the Japanese are doing much to stir the Koreans out of this 
apathy, but it still prevails to a marked degree. They 
accept, often grudgingly, the modem improvements that 
the Japanese have introduced; but they show little dis- 
position to make them their own or to bring in others. 
They merely acquiesce in what the Japanese do and let it 
go at that. An inherent difficulty which runs deep and 
affects many problems in both church and state is the fact 
that Korea has no middle class, no manufacturing or pro- 
fessional class, few trained leaders of any kind. There are 
only two classes, the '^ noble '^ and the peasant, although it 
would be difficult to find men who are less noble than the 
former, the yangbans. 

The Korean temperament, too, is more emotional than 
that of the Japanese or Chinese. It is comparatively easy 
to reach his heart and to arouse his sympathies. This is 
one reason why Christianity has made more rapid progress 
in Korea than in either China or Japan. There are, of 
course, other reasons for evangehstic success in Korea, 
which I shall describe elsewhere, but this temperamental 
condition is a differentiating factor. 

National ambitions also differ. The ambition of the 
Japanese is that his countiy shall be recognized as a world- 
power. The ambition of the Chinese is to advance his 
personal interests. The ambition of the Korean is to be 
let alone. It was pathetic to see the people flock to the 
Salvation Army officers. They felt in a half-childish way 
that the drums and fifes and miHtary imagery meant some- 
thing which would help them to get rid of the outsiders who 
were disturbing their life. 

I am aware of the limitations of the distinctions which 
have been indicated. It would be easy to specify excep- 
tions in each country; but I am now considering the peo- 
ples as a whole, and these fimdamental distinctions run 



252 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

deep and affect many political, commercial, and missionary 
problems. 

The Japanese sensibly make no secret of their ambition. 
The well-known Japanese author, Professor Kawakami, 
writes: ''Japan must have a place in the sun.''^ ''It is 
Japan's mission to harmonize Eastern and Western civiliza- 
tions in order to bring about the unification of the world/ ^ 
said Marquis Okuma;^ and in a public address he declared: 
"Forty years ago but an insignificant nation in the eye of 
the world, Japan is now regarded as one of its strongest 
Powers, in a sense holding the destiny of Asia in her hand. 
Henceforth, in the solution of the Eastern questions, even 
where she does not play a conspicuous part, her will cannot 
be altogether ignored. She has raised herseK to this high 
position and has determined to maintain it none too soon, 
for the object of European anxiety is no longer the con- 
tinent of Africa alone but that of Asia as well, with which 
Japan is so closely connected; for, unless she is strong 
enough to make her voice heard in the deliberation as to 
measures for relieving that anxiety, her own safety might 
be threatened.'' 

There may be individuals here and there who can con- 
sistently criticise Japan for cherishing such an ambition, 
but they are not representative citizens of the United States, 
Great Britain, France, Germany, or Russia. Charles Dick- 
ens found Americans so loudly asseverating that their 
country was destined to be the biggest, grandest, most 
glorious country on earth that he good-naturedly satirized 
us in the pages of Martin Chuzzlewit. For generations. 
Fourth of July orations, congressional speeches, and innu- 
merable newspaper and magazine articles have proclaimed 
the same tidings to a sceptical world. Some Americans 
talk as if they had a right to the control of the Pacific. If 
they were familiar with the history of their own country, 
they would know that the United States did not possess a 
clear title to any territory bordering on the Pacific Ocean 

^ Article in the New York Times, April 9, 1915. 
2 Japan to America, p. 2. 



FUNDAMENTAL NATIONAL DISTINCTIONS 253 

till 1846. Why should we regard our claim to the supremacy 
of the Pacific as superior to that of nations which have 
occupied territory on that ocean for more than two thou- 
sand years? It may be that the Japanese are overambi- 
tious and offensively self-assertive. I suspect that they are 
and that we ourselves belong in the same category. If we 
are disposed to persuade nations to adopt a more modest 
and Christian attitude toward one another, we should in- 
clude our own people as well as the Japanese in our well- 
meant efforts. 



CHAPTER XVI 
JAPAN AS A MILITARY POWER 

Is Japan physically able to maintain the place in world 
affairs which she has attained? It is not to the credit of 
modern civilization that such a question must be con- 
sidered either by others or by the Japanese themselves. 
Unhappily, we have been slow in emerging from the period 
in which there is no international court to which a wronged 
nation may appeal for justice, and in which national selfish- 
ness, greed, and arrogance are often glorified as '^patriotism." 
Each government has felt that it must be able to protect 
itself or go to the wall, and that in the scramble for trade 
and territory and '^a. place in the sun" it is every nation 
for itself and 'Hhe devil take the hindmost." ^'A nation 
must maintain its sea and land forces at such a point as 
shall correspond with its national strength," said the Ger- 
man Chancellor in an address before the Reichstag; other- 
wise ''it would run the risk of forfeiting its present place 
among the Powers to some stronger nation that is willing 
to take it." 

Japan is as apt a pupil in war as in peace, and Western 
nations have done much to convince her that it was neces- 
sary to be. They long acted on the assumption that might 
makes right. Asia has always acted on that assumption, 
and recent experiences have not weakened the savage neces- 
sity. While Europeans and Americans have been talking 
about "The Yellow Peril," Asiatics have been talking 
about "The White Peril." The impressions of the Japa- 
nese are voiced by Doctor Toyokichi lyenaga, who grimly 
writes: "Since modem nations have erected their political 
structures upon the ruins of Rome, the dominant note of 
their existence has been and still is miHtarism. To join 
their ranks the best passport is martial prowess. This as- 

254 



JAPAN AS A MILITARY POWER 255 

sertion is strikingly proved by the manner in which Japan 
was at last admitted into the hst of modern Powers. For 
half a century Japan assiduously applied herself to the re- 
construction of the arts of peace. She remodelled her edu- 
cational system, codified her laws, brought the adminis- 
tration of justice to the modern standard, consecrated her 
energy to the cultivation of Western science and literature, 
created the commercial and industrial middle class, opened 
a Parhament, and proclaimed the freedom of speech, press, 
and faith — ^in short, she completely reorganized her political 
and social fabric upon the model of the West. Did this 
progress of Japan in the way of peace succeed in placing 
her on an equal footing with the Western nations, however ? 
No! Unpleasant as it may sound to you, the position 
which Japan coveted in the family of nations was gained 
only after she had unwittingly demonstrated her skill in 
the game of war. When in defense of her national honor 
and interests she fought her great neighbor and won the 
battles of Pyengyang and the Yalu, Japan discovered to her 
surprise that her prestige in the eyes of the West had be- 
come suddenly enhanced. And it was only after another 
terrible war, waged with fear and trembling for her national 
security, that the frank recognition of the insular kingdom 
as a great Power was given by the world. This is forsooth 
a sad commentary on the militarism of the West. ... Is 
there any wonder that the conviction of dire necessity for 
guarding herself by efficient armament has sunk deep into 
the heart of Japan?" ^ 

The aggressions of European Powers in Asia and Africa 
afforded painful evidence that Japan's apprehensions were 
not without cause, and Italy's attack upon Tripoli gave a 
fresh illustration. The wrongs of which the ItaHans in 
Tripoli complained could have been remedied by peaceful 
means. But Italy wanted territory, a place where her 
overcrowded population could colonize under her own flag 
and remain a material asset, instead of going off to the 
United States and to South America to strengthen other 

1 Article in The Oriental Review, June 10, 1911. 



256 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

nations. Therefore Italy plunged into a war in order to 
obtain a region which she coveted, and which she knew that 
Turkey had no navy to defend. Italian rule is undoubtedly 
better than Moslem rule. But this defense of Italy, which 
is so often urged, will not pass muster at the bar of morality. 
The fact that one might use another man's property more 
wisely than he is using it does not justify one in seizing it 
by violence and murder. 

The Japanese were not slow in taking the lesson to 
heart. They realized that the necessity for military and 
naval strength in their case was intensified by their small 
home territory, its inadequate agricultural productiveness, 
their island position, their dependence upon foreign com- 
merce, and the disposition of powerful Western nations to 
seize the countries on the adjacent mainland, whose enor- 
mous markets and resources, if in unfriendly hands, would 
isolate Japan and reduce her to a position of weakness and 
insignificance. They understood perfectly that the Rus- 
sians would not permanently acquiesce in exclusion from an 
ice-free port in the North Pacific. They know that the Ko- 
reans and Chinese fear and disHke them. They know that 
many foreigners throughout the Far East are not friendly 
to them. They believe too that the position which they 
have won in the world in general and in the Far East in 
particular is one which can be held only by military force. 
Lamentable it surely is that Japan's entrance into the family 
of nations should entail a demonstration of her abihty to 
fight on equal terms wdth the alleged Christian Powers of 
the West! Convinced that this must be done, the Japa- 
nese are maintaming their army and n&Yj at a high stage 
of efficiency. One hears many stories about a large army 
and enormous stores of munitions of war. It is difficult 
to tell how far they are true, for government secrets are 
more closely guarded than in America. The reports are 
probably exaggerated, but no one doubts that the Japanese 
are keeping themselves in a state of effective military pre- 
paredness. As for the navy, in 1894 it had a tonnage of 
61,000; in 1904 of 283,743; in 1916 of 699,916, aad large 



JAPAN AS A MILITARY POWER 257 

additions have been made since then. Japan is able to 
make her own ships and cannon, and her gun-factory at 
Kure is one of the largest and best-equipped plants of the 
kind in the world. 

Modest in size as Japan is, it possesses some special ad- 
vantages which make it more formidable as a fighting na- 
tion than its numerical strength and financial resources 
might suggest, and as they are important factors in the 
consideration of Japan as a world-power, it may be well to 
mention them. 

First: A pohtical organization able to act quickly and 
decisively. Highly centraHzed monarchical governments 
can prepare for and wage war more readily and effectively 
than democratic governments. This is one of the grave in- 
dictments against war — ^it gives the advantage to those forms 
of government which allow the least Hberty to the indi- 
vidual and concentrate the most power in a few men. Such 
governments can adopt war measures secretly without the 
necessity of consulting congresses and parHaments, whose 
members demand unlimited freedom of debate, and who are 
sensitive to a public opinion represented by myriads of 
inquisitive and outspoken newspapers. A democracy acts 
slowly and cumbersomely in comparison. 

Second : A martial spirit pervading the entire popula- 
tion. The typical Japanese is a bom soldier and he takes 
naturally and with avidity to the profession of arms. The 
annual calling of young men to the colors is made an occa- 
sion of festivities. Their houses are decorated with flags, 
and processions of friends and neighbors accompany the 
recruits to the station with every demonstration of honor. 
Military ardor and love of the beautiful are seldom imited, 
but they are in the Japanese. It is true that they do not 
fight except under provocation; but, given the provocation, 
they are ready to meet it with a swiftness that is apt to be 
disconcerting to their enemies. Their temperament is the 
opposite of the temperament of the Chinese. The latter 
are peaceful in disposition, despising the profession of arms, 
and, until the aggressions of Western nations compelled 



258 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

them to adopt a different policy, filled their regiments and 
warships with the offscourings of their population. The 
Japanese are militant in disposition. They have a genius 
for war. Feudalism dominated Japan longer than any other 
nation, and while the system has been overthrown, the 
feudal spirit survives and becomes a formidable asset for 
war. For many centuries and until within the memory of 
men now living, the ideal type of the Japanese was the 
Knight. ^^ Among flowers the cherr}^, among men the war- 
rior'' was a popular sentiment. ''Bushido, the Soul of 
Japan," is ''the Way of the Warrior" — literally, ''Figjiting 
— Knightways" or "Teachings of Knightly Behavior." It 
is not suiprising that such a people quickly assimilated 
modern weapons of precision and in an incredibly brief 
time learned to use them efficiently. 

Third: An extraordinaiy national unity, inspired by the 
most intense and self-sacrificing loyalty. I have referred 
in another chapter to the soHdarity of the Japanese people. 
The whole nation becomes a fighting machine in time of 
danger. The war with Russia illustrated this on a startling 
scale. The civil, mihtary, and naval departments of the 
government acted in absolute accord. The spirit of patri- 
otic determination actuated not only every soldier and 
sailor, but the entire population. Wives proudly saw their 
husbands march away, and mothers committed suicide in 
grief and shame when their sons were pronounced physically 
disqualified. 

Fourth: Thorough preparation. This preparation be- 
gins with the boys in the public schools. There is a parade- 
ground in connection with each one that I saw, and a spa- 
cious hall for drill in bad weather. Light rifles are provided 
and a dark-blue uniform with brass buttons. The training 
is far from superficial. Drills are a regular feature of the 
curriculum. In several cities that we visited our hosts hap- 
pened to live near public-school buildings, and every day 
I heard the bugle-calls and saw the platoons of boys march- 
ing and going through the manual of arms in businesslike 
fashion. The Japanese believe in universal military ser- 



JAPAN AS A MILITARY POWER 259 

vice, and every physically qualified man between the ages 
of seventeen and forty is potentially a soldier. Provision 
is made for a few exemptions and for alternative service for 
university students; but the general rule calls for two years 
of active service with the colors^ four years and four months 
in the reserve service, and ten years in the depot service. 
Japan therefore does not need as large a standing arni}^ as 
some other nations, for practically eveiy man receives mili- 
taiy training and, after his return to civil life, is amenable 
to his country^s summons. The number of men actually 
under arms at any given time is, therefore, not important. 
The entire able-bodied population of the coimtry is avail- 
able on instant call. 

Some of the military posts are the old feudal castles, 
which were appropriated by the government when feudal- 
ism was aboHshed in 1871. I do not wonder that the Em- 
peror deemed it mexpedient to leave the great nobles in 
possession of those massive fortifications. That at Nagoya, 
for example, stands in grounds of vast extent, and is pro- 
tected by deep outer and inner moats, whose solid stone 
walls are of a height and thickness which would make 
them impregnable against anything but modern artillery. 
The labor of construction must have been prodigious. 
The castle was founded in 1607 by Yoshinao, who received 
the overlordship of the province of Owari from his father, 
the celebrated Tokugawa leyasu. It towers impressively 
above the northern part of the city, its famous golden dol- 
phins, although forty-eight feet long, appearing to be of 
modest size in comparison with the huge building which, 
as masters of water, they were supposed to defend from the 
god of fire. Ten thousand soldiers were stationed at the 
castle at the time of my visit, and the hard, level parade- 
ground is so vast that I was told that 37,000 men had 
drilled on it at once. The castle at Osaka is another no- 
table example. I saw single stones which, as nearly as I 
could estimate, were forty feet long, twenty high, and eight 
feet thick, and there were others almost as large. Only 
"an unlimited command of naked human strength'^ could 



260 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

have made possible those stupendous fortifications in an 
age when our modem hoisting-machinery was unknown. 
Of course, they were built by forced labor and maintained 
by tribute exacted from the wretched farmers and common 
people over a wide area. When feudalism received its 
death-bloW; the people were emancipated from such con- 
tributions of work and rice. The haughty lords were com- 
pelled to reside in Tokyo, where the Emperor could keep 
his eye on them, and their formidable castles were filled with 
imperial troops. Seven thousand were quartered in the 
barracks that had been erected on the Osaka Castle grounds, 
and the number appeared small in comparison with the 
extent of the preserve. 

Regiments are drilled until they are perfect fighting 
imits. I visited a nimiber of military posts, and although 
I have seen soldiers of many nations, I have never seen such 
drilling as I saw in Japan. The ofiicers devoted little time 
to those showy parades and fancy exercises which so de- 
light spectators at an American military post, and which 
are about as helpful as dancing-lessons when fighting-days 
come. They made their men trudge up-hill and dowTi in 
heavy marching order, dig trenches, charge batteries, fight 
sham battles, and do everything just as it must be done in 
real warfare. The house in which I was entertained at 
Kanazawa was not far from a garrison, and the troops were 
drilHng night after night when I went to sleep. I formed 
the impression then that when Japan did fight somebody 
would get hurt. 

The navy was working equally hard. "When matters 
were growing serious in the winter of 1903-4," an observer 
wrote, "the Japanese navy underwent a special battle- 
training — constant firing at long range with heavy guns 
under war conditions, torpedo work at night in bad weather, 
using live torpedoes, manoeuvring at night without fights, 
night-firing, and the rehearsal of operations that were 
actually to form part of the war when it began.'' 

The individual Japanese soldier, while short of stature as 
all his countrymen are, is solid, sturdy, patient, temperate, 



JAPAN AS A MILITARY POWER 261 

inured to hardship, accustomed to an outdoor Hfe, dis- 
ciphned to the highest point of a military efficiency, armed 
with the most highly improved weapons, and unquestioning 
in obedience to his officers, who are often hereditary chiefs 
of his clan. He was a familiar figure on the streets of all 
the cities I visited. He invariably wore his belt and side- 
arms and often his gloves, was neat in appearance, erect in 
bearing and well behaved in manner. 

After the outbreak of the European War in 1914, a mis- 
sionary^ in the Marshall Islands wrote: ^^On the morning 
of September 29, several Japanese men-of-war appeared, 
and an armed force was landed and the Japanese flag hoisted. 
Although martial law necessarily prevails, it is in its mild- 
est form, and all nationahties are treated with the utmost 
courtesy and consideration. Last month 800 men from the 
fleet had leave on shore for a day, but there were no cases 
whatever of drunkenness, disorder, or immorality. The 
men, instead of drinking freely of beer and other intoxicants, 
which they could have obtained at the saloon that was 
open to all, preferred to spend their leave money on sugar, 
and appeared to enjoy themselves immensely. From the 
timie of the first landing until the present, the conduct of the 
men has been exemplary, and I do not think could be sur- 
passed by the troops of any other civihzed nation.'^ 

The Japanese soldier needs no such elaborate commis- 
sariat as the British and American soldier. He can live 
contentedly on a daily ration of a few cents' worth of rice 
mixed with whole wheat or barley, occasionally supple- 
mented by a Httle meat or fish. And yet his endurance is as 
remarkable as his loyalty and bravery. In north China, 
during the Boxer Uprising in 1900, he came into competi- 
tion with the soldiers of the great nations of the West, and 
it was the well-nigh universal testimony not only of mis- 
sionaries and newspaper correspondents, but of European 
and American arm.y officers, that ^Hhe little Japs were the 
best soldiers of them all," excelling in discipline, in celerity 
of movement, in orderly behavior, in the perfection of their 
commissary and quartermaster departments, and m general 



262 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

efficiency for hard campaigning. When the Pope sent a 
handsome diamond to Bishop Favier with instructions to 
give it to the man who had performed the best service dur- 
ing the siege of Peking^ the bishop gave it to Colonel Shiba, 
militaiy attache of the Japanese legation. 

Japan ^s nsLVj, too, is one of the best in the world. Her 
ships are thoroughly modern in construction and equipment, 
and her officers and men know how to use their formidable 
fighting machines. The world has not forgotten that in 
the war with China the Japanese captured and sunk Chi- 
nese battleships with unarmored cruisers. When the 
thermometer is twenty-six degrees below the freezing-point, 
and the decks are sheeted with ice and the wind is blowing 
a gale and the air is thick with whirling snow, most sailors 
would discreetly suspend operations. But though these 
were the conditions before Wei-hai-wei, the Japanese 
tumbled down the Chinese fortifications as smilingly as 
if on a smnmer's holiday. Admiral Belknap said : ^^ I do not 
hesitate to express the opinion that, were English and Japa- 
nese fleets of about equal strength to meet in battle, the 
chances would be as favorable to the Japanese as to the 
EngHsh. The Japanese will fight; let there be no mistake 
about that. The sun does not shine on a more determined 
or more intrepid race than that of Japan." 

The Japanese soldier never counts the cost to himself of 
any order that he may receive, and rather hopes that he 
may have the honor of being killed for the Emperor, whom 
he loves and worships. Japanese soldiers and sailors are 
characterized by a self-sacrificing dash and determination 
which make them well-nigh invincible. At the outbreak 
of the war with Russia, some Japanese in their eagerness to 
go to the front divorced their wives or sent them back to 
their parents. The Reverend Doctor Hemy Loomis, of 
Yokohama, says that one man, finding himself unable to 
make arrangements for the care of his two little children, 
killed them in order to free himself for military service. 
Another sold his two daughters to a brothel-keeper. Ad- 
miral Togo told his officers to sail with the expectation that 



JAPAN AS A MILITARY POWER 263 

they would not see their wives and children again, and not 
even to think about them or write to them. It is said that 
he himself once struck his wife and ordered her to be silent 
when she entreated him not to rise from a sick-bed to go 
to his ship. ^'I shall count it an honor to die for Japan/' 
was the unanimous reply of a regiment to the question: 
^^What do you plan to do in the war with Russia?" When 
Admiral Togo called for Kesshi-tai (a body of men resolved 
to fight till death) to sink blocking steamships in the en- 
trance to Port Arthur, 2,000 men eagerly responded, and 
among the appHcations was the following from a second- 
class warrant officer: 

February 18, 1904. 
Commander Hikojiro Ijichi, 
H. I. M. S. Mikasa. 
Sir: — I, being desirous of participating in the volunteer corps now 
being raised, entreat you to select me, hereby sending in application 
written with my own blood. Monpei Hayashi. 

When Captain Yashiro, of the Japanese battleship Asama, 
bade good-by to the volunteers, he gave them to drink from 
a large silver loving-cup filled with cold water, as if he were 
giving them the wine of the sacrament (when near relatives 
in Japan part without any expectation of ever meetuig again, 
they drink by turns from a cup of cold water as they bid 
each other a last good-by), and said to them: ^^I send you 
to the place of death, and I have no doubt that you are 
ready to die; but I do not mean to advise you to despise 
your Hf e nor to run needless risks in trying to make a great 
name. What I ask of you all is to do your duty regardless 
of your life. The cup of water that I now offer you is not 
meant to give you courage— it would be shameful if our 
men needed Dutch courage to go to the place of death — 
it is only to make you representatives of the honor of the 
Asama. Submit your Hfe to the will of Heaven and calmly 
perform your duty.^^^ 

In April, 1910, Lieutenant Tsutomu Sakuma, of the ill- 
fated submarine No. 6, found that, as the result of an 

1 Quoted by George Kennan, article in The Outlook^ June 18, 1904. 



264 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

unavoidable accident, his submarine was sinking and that 
death by suffocation was inevitable. He calmly wrote in 
his log-book: 

"I have no words to beg pardon for losing His Majesty's boat and 
for killing my men, owing to my carelessness. But all the crew have 
well discharged their duties till their death, and have worked with 
fortitude. . . . Our only regret is that this accident may, we fear, 
cause a hindrance to the development of the submarine. ... I am 
greatly satisfied, I have always been prepared for death on leaving 
home. I humbly ask Your Majesty, the Emperor, to be so gracious 
as not to let the bereaved families of my men be subjected to desti- 
tution. This is the only anxiety which occupies my mind at present." 

Human Bullets, A Soldier^s Story of Port Arthur, is the 
title of a little book by Lieutenant Tadayoshi Sakurai, in 
which a typical Japanese vividly describes the fierce joy of 
battle against the foes of his countiy. He calls it a "de- 
lightful business to pursue a flying enemy when they are 
shot from behind and fall like leaves in the autumnal wind.'' 
It is not a hght thing for the world when modem weapons 
of precision are put into the hands of men of such warlike 
passion. 

Like devotion characterized the people at home. Sev- 
eral fathers and mothers committed suicide to enable their 
sons, upon whom they were dependent, to go to the war. 
When neighbors called to express sympathy with a man 
whose boy had been killed, he repHed: "I am not an ob- 
ject of sympathy. All must die, and my son might have 
died like the son of my neighbor, in a cabin, of fever. But 
he died on the field of battle in the service of his Emperor 
and in the performance of his duty. I should be con- 
gratulated." 

The war with Russia brought into high relief some 
phases of Japan's methods of preparation. The intelli- 
gence department had collected complete and detailed in- 
formation regarding the topography of the countiy to be 
fought over. Ever}^ path and creek, every hill and valley 
in all Korea and Manchuria were indicated upon maps 
conveniently arranged for officers in the field. Plans of 
campaign had been worked out so that every important 



JAPAN AS A MILITARY POWER 265 

battle was fought on the prescribed KneS; and the command- 
ing general could report afterward that he had engaged the 
enemy ''as prearranged/' a phrase which occurs with sig- 
nificant frequency in official reports. Enormous accimaula- 
tions of supplies and mimitions of war had been bought or 
manufactured. Arms, ammunition, food, clothing, equip- 
ment, transportation — everything indeed that the army and 
navy required — were provided and stored where they could 
be readily used. 

This perfect preparedness enabled the Japanese to be 
prompt in takuig the offensive. They forced the fighting 
from start to finish. Knowing precisely what they wanted 
to do, they went at their task with relentless energy. Gen- 
eral Grant's motto, "When in doubt, go forward,'' was bet- 
tered by the Japanese for they were never in doubt. The 
result was that the campaign was fought on their lines, and 
that the Russians were kept so busy defending themselves 
that they had no chance to develop strategy of their own. 
The moral power of such bold initiative was tremendous. 
The Japanese troops were always eager and confident, 
while the Russians were kept in constant apprehension of 
attack, an apprehension which was saved from frequent 
panic only b}^ the dogged obstinacy of the Slavic tempera- 
ment. 

Fifth: Maximum strength at the front was another ele- 
ment in Japanese success. The Russian general Kuropat- 
kin lamented that ''at the end of March, 1905, when we 
had carried out a very energetic preparation of the theatre 
of warlike action as far as the River Sungari, the fighting 
element in the Manchurian army consisted only of 58 per 
cent in some sections of the troops. ... In April, the per- 
centage of bayonets in the First Manchurian Army consti- 
tuted 51.9 per cent." But the Japanese succeeded in keep- 
ing their sick and special-detail lists so small and the 
health of their troops so good that they usually had more 
than 90 per cent of their men in action. 

Sixth: Sanitation and prophylaxis must not be over- 
looked in studying the causes of Japanese success. Disease 
is often a greater danger to an army than the living enemy. 



266 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

The history of former wars shows that an average of four 
men have died from disease for every one killed in action. 
In six months of the Crimean campaign, the losses of the 
allied forces from this cause were 50,000 as against 20,000 
from battle casualties. In the Russo-Turkish War of 
1877-8, the deaths from disease (80,000) were four times 
as many as those which occurred in battle or from wounds. 
In our own war with Mexico, the proportion of deaths from 
disease to those from battle casualties was three to one. 
In the American Civil War the Noi-thern armies lost 110,000 
men by shells and bullets and 199,720 by disease, or 8.6 
per cent of the number of men in the army. During the 
French campaign of 1894 in Madagascar, about 14,000 sol- 
diers were sent to the front. Only 29 were killed in action, 
but over 7,000 perished from preventable disease. In the 
Boer War in South Africa, the British losses from disease, 
compared with those from wounds, were ten to one. In our 
own war with Spain 14 lives were sacrificed to ignorance 
and carelessness for every soldier who died on the firing- 
line or from wounds. The actual figures were 293 deaths 
from battle casualties and 3,681 from disease.^ President 
Taft declared that there were 20,000 cases of t^^Dhoid fever 
among 120,000 troops, and that 90 per cent of the volunteer 
regiments were infected within eight weeks from the date 
of mobilization. Among 10,759 men encamped at Jackson- 
ville, Florida, for four months in 1898, there were 2,693 
cases of fever, and 529 deaths; an annual death-rate of 
147.5 per 1,000 for soldiers at whom not a shot was fired .^ 
Colonel Theodore Roosevelt declared that the whole Ameri- 
can force at Santiago was an army of invalids. Shakespeare 
caused Henry V to voice the experience of many military 
commanders when, after a short campaign in France, the 
King lamented : 

"My people are with sickness much enfeebled; 

My army but a weak and sickly guard." 

^ Cf. Doctor L. L. Seaman, The Real Triumph of Japan. 

2 Major Robert E. Noble, quoted in the New York Times, May 27, 1917. 



JAPAN AS A MILITARY POWER 267 

Until recent years, many officers of European and Ameri- 
can armies were almost contemptuously indifferent to the 
health of their men. Army surgeons were free to advise, 
but had little or no authority to enforce sanitaiy measures. 
Their duty was beheved to be to take care of men after they 
became ill, not to prevent them from becoming iU. There 
were regulations regarding camp locations, latrines, sick- 
calls and field-hospitals; but the average commander ap- 
parently deemed the prevention of disease unworthy of the 
soldier spirit. When I was in Manila in 1901, I saw a regi- 
ment encamped in a veritable lake of mud, and many of the 
men sick in consequence. I was credibly informed that a 
request for permission to remove the camp to an available 
drier site was sharply refused on the groimd that soldiers 
must get used to such things ! An artiller}^ officer who was 
prominent in the Santiago campaign boasted that he did 
not drink boiled water in Cuba, or carry out any other 
^^ ridiculous sanitary recommendations. " He died of typhoid 
in the Philippines six months later. A heutenant of in- 
fantry refused to be vaccinated, and smallpox caused his 
funeral a month after reaching the PhiHppines. Both of 
these officers were regarded by their countrjmien as heroes 
who had died for the flag.^ 

Japan was the first nation to remedy these abuses and 
to deal intelligently with questions of military health and 
sanitation. It is only fair to bear in mind that the real 
causes of many maladies and of the methods of propaga- 
tion were not known until a short time ago. The germ 
theory of disease, the relation of mosquitoes to malaria, 
ffies and water to t}^hoid, body-Hce to typhus, dirt to sup- 
puration, and the use of anti-septics, anti-toxins, and other 
preventives are comparatively recent discoveries. The 
average civilian slept in an unventilated room under the 
blissful impression that ^' night air is injurious," and ate and 
drank what he pleased in calm neglect of every health pre- 
caution. Even the medical profession prescribed drugs for 

1 Article by Major Charles E. Woodruff, of the Medical Corps, U. S. A,, in 
the New York Times, October 18, 1908. 



268 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

diphtheria while drain-pipes were out of order, and ordered 
a milk diet for a fever patient without reference to the 
chai-acter of the milk-supply. The last two decades have 
seen a remarkable increase in knowledge regarding these 
subjects. Japan and Russia were the first nations to wage 
a great war after the civilized world had begun to realize 
the significance of these things. But Russia certainly did 
not show, and it is doubtful whether any other white nation 
would have shown, the intelligent and resolute determina- 
tion with which the Japanese handled this problem. 

This care is not to be attributed to a greater regard for 
the welfare of the individual soldier as a man than has 
been manifested by other governments. No other generals 
in the world more freely sacrificed their men in battle. 
They were wise enough, however, to realize that sick men 
cannot fight effectively, that an invalid soldier is a double 
loss, for he needs a well man to take care of him, and that 
men in prime condition make a more formidable army than 
men weakened by disease. 

The Japanese went about this work in the thorough and 
methodical maimer which characterized all their prepara- 
tion and conduct of the war. Surgeons were not regarded 
as mere civilians in uniform who were accorded rank by 
courtesy; they were authoritative officers who not only 
cared for the sick and wounded, but who had power and 
discretion in sanitary matters. A commanding officer who 
ignored a recommendation of an army surgeon which dealt 
with the preservation of the health of his troops would have 
found himself in trouble in short order. The aphorism of 
Napoleon, that "an army fights on its stomach '^ was fully 
understood by the Japanese. Careful attention was given 
to camp hygiene, and the troops were told how to prepare 
and serve their food, what kinds must be avoided, how food 
should be chewed, and how the bowels should be kept in 
proper order. 

Drinking-water received special attention. The medical 
department of the army sent experts in advance of march- 
ing troops to test the water in wells and streams. If one 



JAPAN AS A MILITARY POWER 269 

was found impure, a notice was posted forbidding the use 
of the water without boiling. Every company had an ap- 
paratus for boiling water, and a soldier was not permitted 
to take a drink of any water which had not been pronounced 
fit for use either by testing or boiling. 

Before going into battle, every soldier was given a first- 
aid-to-the-injured packet, and taught how to use it. He 
was required to take a bath, put on clean underclothing, 
and pare and clean his finger-nails, so that if a bullet 
entered his body it would not carry in shreds of dirty cloth- 
ing or impurities from the skin or hands. One can imagine 
the laughter with which American troops would have 
greeted such orders, and the difficulty of enforcing them. 
But the feudal spirit, the unquestioning obedience, and the 
iron discipline of the Japanese were equal to every demand. 

The results of this policy amazed the world. The Japa- 
nese generals commanded men in "the pink of condition.'^ 
As the steel- jacketed bullets usually bored clean holes 
which were not infected by dirty bodies or soiled clothing, 
and as the soldier promptly clapped an antiseptic bandage 
over the wound, a very large percentage of the injuries re- 
ceived in battle quickly healed by first intention, many of 
them requiring no other treatment. Sickness was so effec- 
tually held in check that, while 58,887 men were killed in 
battle or died from wounds, there were only 27,158 deaths 
from disease among the 1,200,000 men who went to the 
front. 

Equal care was exercised in the navy. Food and sanita- 
tion are more easily watched on warships than on land, so 
that illness is less common among sailors than among sol- 
diers. Wounded men, too, can be more quickly cared for 
on shipboard than when they are scattered over miles of 
ground, where they may have to lie for hours, and perhaps 
days, before they can be reached. Naval commanders or- 
der men to plug their ears with cotton before a battle so 
that the concussion of heavy cannon will not rupture ear- 
drums. The Japanese surgeons took this precaution, 
carefully examined the eyes of gunners to make sure that 



270 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

there was no impairment of vision which might affect their 
aim, and during engagements supphed the battery crews 
with a weak solution of boracic acid to wash out the eyes 
when they became affected by smoke and dust. Food and 
clothing for both soldiers and sailors were adapted to the 
climate and season, so that Japanese troops were not com- 
pelled in midsummer to swelter in the heavy flannel shirts 
and to eat the heating foods of Wisconsin lumber-jacks in 
winter, as American soldiers were in the war with Spain. 

Some critics assert that the Japanese have been over- 
praised for their health record. It is alleged that they were 
as secretive about their sick returns as they were about 
everything else, and that there were more sick soldiers 
than they cared to have the world know. The Asiatic 
scourge of beri-beri was often prevalent.^ We must re- 
member, too, in connection with the fact that the number 
of deaths from disease was less than that from bullets, that 
the Japanese sacrificed their lives in battle as white soldiers 
seldom do. An American general who ordered repeated 
charges which resulted in the annihilation of the columns 
making them would be universally execrated. General 
Grant was denounced as "a butcher" because he directed 
single assaults which caused the death of less than half of 
the attacking force. But when Japanese regiments were 
completely annihilated at Port Arthur, fresh regiments were 
ordered up, to be wiped out in turn, and then still other regi- 
ments, until the hill slopes were turned into shambles. 
This kind of warfare of course swelled the proportion of 
killed and wounded as compared with the sick. But making 
all due allowance for these considerations, the general fact 
remains that, in comparison with all previous wars, the 
Japanese were successful to an unprecedented degree in 
lessening disease and in treating wounds. 

Western governments were not slow in learning the les- 
son. Their war departments now pay far closer attention 
to the health of soldiers, and the medical arm of the service 

1 C/. F. A. McKenzie, The Unveiled East, p. 106, and B. L. Putnam Weale, 
The Coming Struggle in Eastern Asia, p. 204, 



JAPAN AS A MILITARY POWEll 271 

has a higher relative standing than it had before the Russia- 
Japan War. The European War, a decade later, bore 
striking witness to this improvement. It is true that 
typhus raged among the Serbian troops, that the Russians 
were characteristically heedless in matters of sanitation, 
and that the British and French expedition to GallipoH lost 
nearly a hundred thousand men on account of disease. 
But the health record on the western front was remarkably 
good. Soldiers on both sides were well fed and well clothed. 
Epidemics were stopped. Wounds were so skilfully treated 
that more than 80 per cent of the wounded men recovered 
sufficiently to enable them to return to the battle-line mthin 
three or four weeks. Of the first half -million men that 
Canada sent to Europe, "the deaths from sickness were 
less than 5.3 per cent of all the deaths, and less than 13^ 
per cent of all the casualties. . . . Only one out of ever}^ 
411 soldiers succumbed to sickness in the course of nearly 
three years of camp and trench life combined." 

The EngMsh and AustraUan showing would probably be 
about equally satisfactory. The French record was sadly 
lowered by tuberculosis. Doctor Herman M. Biggs, of 
New York, said that 150,000 French soldiers had to be 
withdrawn from the army on this account alone. This 
lamentable fact should not be attributed to French dis- 
regard of reasonable precautions but to the fact that the 
frightful and long-continued fighting compelled France in 
her desperation to send to the front many men who were 
not physically able to withstand the strain of life in the 
trenches. Taking the European War as a whole, careful 
sanitation, preventive medicine and antiseptic treatment of 
wounds so lowered the mortality rate that the proportion 
of men killed or permanently disabled by wounds or disease 
was probably not as high as in some former wars. One 
third of all the men who went into the battle of Gettysburg 
were left on the field. General Grant began a campaign in 
Virginia with 150,000 men, and from these and the re- 
inforcements which joined them he lost 200,000 in three 
months from sickness and jBghting. Major-General William 



272 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

C. Gorgas, Surgeon-General of the United States Army, 
who cites these facts, says that there has been no such pro- 
portionate loss as that in any of the big battles of the 
recent war. The actual number is, of course, far greater 
than in previous wars; but this is due to the unprecedented 
number of combatants engaged and not to higher proportion. 
The death-rate from disease in the American army in France 
was declared by General Peyton C. March, to have been 
less than three-fourths of one per cent, which is believed to 
be the lowest that any army has ever reported. 

I am digressing from the Japanese; but perhaps I have 
said enough in this chapter to show that Japan is now a 
military Power of the first class, and that she is quite able 
to maintain her position. Marquis Okuma voiced the 
united opinion of the Japanese people when he concluded 
an address in March, 1915, by saying: ^^ Japan is becoming 
a great country. We must have an army adequate to de- 
fend our country. The European War proved that a regu- 
larly trained army is necessary in defending a country. The 
one-year service system advocated may do for small coun- 
tries, like Switzerland for instance, but it will not do for 
Japan. We should consider our position in the world. '^ 
The Japan Advertiser said that the hanzais of the five thou- 
sand people who heard him '^nearly lifted the Kabukiza 
Theatre." 



CHAPTER XVII 
JAPAN'S COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 

My two visits to Japan, eight years apart, gave me an 
opportunity to note the altering conditions. Visibly indeed 
there was comparatively little change. The charm of Japa- 
nese scenery was still immarred, save in a few places, by 
the crass materiaHsm which in America lines our railways 
with huge signs vouchsafing the opinion that we ought to 
use bile beans, that soothing syrup is good for babies, and 
that pink pills will redden pale faces. Japanese architec- 
ture was the same, save that here and there a new public 
building was of foreign style. Native garments still pre- 
dominated on the streets. The jinrikisha still awaited the 
traveller at every station, and there were the same long 
rows of narrow shops with their picturesque signs. The 
visitor could easily find external signs of change if he looked 
for them, and in some instances they obtruded themselves. 
Nevertheless, Japan to the eye was the familiar historic 
Japan. 

But as I moved among the people I became conscious of 
subtler changes. In 1901 I found the militant spirit domi- 
nant. The people had not recovered from their rage and 
chagrin over Russia's seizure of Port Arthur and Man- 
churia, thus depriving them of the hard-won fruits of the 
China-Japan War. The nation was thinking of revenge. 
It realized, too, that Russian aggressions must result in 
war. It was therefore drilHng soldiers, building warships, 
and accumulating military stores. 

Present-day Japan, while not less military, is more com- 
mercial. It understands that war is expensive business. 
The China-Japan War ran up the national budget from 
$41,500,000 annually to $84,000,000, and the Russia-Japan 

273 



274 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

War swelled it to $252,500,000. The latter war cost Japan 
$585,000,000, and at its close the nation was staggering 
under a debt of $1,125,153,411. This does not look large 
in comparison with the enormous debts incurred by Western 
nations in the European War a decade later, but it was 
$23 per capita, which was ten times the per-capita debt of 
1893. 

Almost everything is taxed. Official reports list among 
other sources of revenue taxes on land, incomes, business, 
succession, travelling, mining, bank-notes, liquors, soy, 
sugar, textile fabrics, kerosene-oil, bourses, imports, ton- 
nage, stamps, and ''other taxes," while postal, telegraph, 
telephone, and railway services, forests, salt, camphor, and 
tobacco are classed as ''public undertakings and state prop- 
erty," whose profits accrue to the state treasury. In addi- 
tion to an import duty of 15 per cent on manufactured 
articles, native manufacturers are heavily assessed, and ev- 
ery citizen with an annual income of more than $150 pays 
income tax. The Japanese have to pay from 20 to 30 per 
cent of their incomes for taxes. A Tokyo paper (the 
Kokumin Shimhun) declares that "the heavy debts of Japan 
are more than the nation can endure"; and Baron Shibu- 
sawa, one of the ablest financiers in Japan, admitted re- 
cently that "the present rate of taxation in Japan is indeed 
extremely high and more than the people at large can 
beax." 

Japan realizes that its material resources are greatly 
inferior to those of other first-class Powers, and that the 
position and ambitions of the nation require wealth as well 
as an army and navy. The Japanese cannot get this wealth 
by agriculture; for not only is Japan a comparatively small 
country territorially, but only 13 per cent of its area is 
easily susceptible of cultivation, and 15 per cent is about 
the practicable limit. The valleys are rich, but they are 
not extensive, and there are no vast stretches of rich prairie 
soil like those in Manchuria and the western part of the 
United States. The pressure of population in Japan has 



JAPAN'S COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 275 

already been noted. The Empire had 37,017,362 inhabi- 
tants in 1883; 39,607,254 in 1888; 41,388,313 in 1893; 
43,763,855 in 1898; 46,732,807 in 1903; 48,649,583 in 
1906; and it now has 56,860,735 exclusive of Korea, For- 
mosa, and SaghaHen. The cost of living is rising. The 
limit of soil productiveness has been practically reached 
and Japan has to import food for her people. Every year 
she purchases abroad millions of piculs of rice and beans, 
the former chiefly from China, Siam, and Burma and the 
latter largely from Manchuria. Her imports of flour in a 
recent year were $1,819,166. There are abeady 350 people 
to the square mile and the birth-rate is rising. 

The Japanese have therefore entered upon a period of 
commercial and industrial development. They have studied 
to good effect the example of England and they are foster- 
ing trade and manufactures on a large scale. They were 
already proficient in making artistic goods. Their lacquer- 
work, cloisonne, and porcelain are justly famous, while their 
silks and embroideries call forth ejaculations of delight from 
every visitor. 

The finest pieces of decorated ware and embroidery are 
not made in factories, but in the homes of the people or in 
obscure Httle shops. Nothing could be more unostentatious 
than the process of porcelain manufacture that we saw in 
Nagoya. A half-dozen common-looking Japanese, some 
of them mere boys and girls, sat in a rude shed, shaping 
dishes and vases out of the moist clay and pressing and 
cutting them into form with the simplest tools and yet 
with rare skill. The decorating was done in hundreds of 
lowly homes, and the firing in rough kilns tended by men 
who looked like day-laborers. But the results were so deli- 
cately beautiful that one felt like spending days in admir- 
ing them. People in other lands prize so highly what 
Nagoya produces that they annually buy nearly a million 
yen' worth of her pottery, cloisonne; lacquer, and other art 
objects. 

The curio-shops and silk-stores in all the principal cities 



276 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

are well worth visiting, though the prudent man will limit 
the sum of money that he takes with him. In Kyoto, for 
example, where the silk industry centres, one is taken to a 
modest building only one and a half stories in height and 
with no pretensions to elegance — a place as far removed as 
possible from the gorgeous department stores of America. 
The politest imaginable salesman meets you at the door 
with low bows, and escorts you through a littered outer 
room and passageway into a back room, where he unfolds 
before you silks and embroideries that fairly take your 
breath away. The prices, too, are seductively low, if you 
forget the heavy duty which Uncle Sam will remorselessly 
exact on your return to America. 

It is not surprising that the art products of Japan have 
made their way all over the civilized world. The demand 
for the export trade is large and increasing, and stores for 
Japanese articles are now to be found in most of the lead- 
ing cities of Europe and America. Unfortimately, the 
cruder taste of many people in other lands calls for a larger 
and gaudier kind of ware than the Japanese would make 
for themselves, and they are yielding, to some extent, to 
the demand, while the growth of the trade is begetting a 
haste to meet it which often shortens the time spent on the 
decorated ware. In some articles, therefore, particularly 
in lacquer, "the o\^ is better. '^ Japan exports annually 
about a million dollars' worth of lacquered ware, and two 
million dollars' worth of porcelain and earthenware, with 
every prospect of an unlimited increase. 

The imitative temperament of the Japanese was a valu- 
able asset in getting a start in manufacturing staple goods 
and articles. As soon as they realized the necessity for 
developing manufactures, they sensibly decided to avail 
themselves of the inventions and processes which Western 
peoples had gradually acquired through many years of re- 
search and experiment. Accordingly European and Ameri- 
can experts were invited to Japan to take charge of the 
new establishments. A Board of Public Works was con- 
stituted to secure the needed assistance in men and appa- 



JAPAN'S COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 277 

ratus. An amusing but characteristic story is told of the 
following order that was sent to the board's agent in London: 

" Urgent. Send to Tokyo at once as follows : 
1 Professor of Electrical Science. 

1 Do. Mining. 

2 Blast Furnaces." 

Attracted by the high salaries offered, many experts gladly 
accepted the invitations. The Japanese carefully watched 
their work so as to understand how it was done, let them 
educate the people to use the new appliances and then, 
when the market had been created and the foreigners fondly 
imagined that they were about to reap the harvest of their 
toil and expenditure, the Japanese politely dismissed them, 
did the work themselves with their cheap labor, and so un- 
dersold the alien companies that they were driven out of 
the business. Hence there was woe among the foreign 
merchants of Yokohama, Kobe, and Nagasaki. 

In the oil trade, however, the Japanese ran against a 
force that was not so easily overcome. Petroleum was early 
introduced and it quickly became popular. The duty 
down to 1898 was only five sen (23/2 cents) on a ten-gallon 
case. But Japan found that she had oil-fields of her own 
in several parts of the Empire, and especially in the province 
of Echigo. In order to promote their development and 
protect the producers from the competition of the Standard 
Oil Company, which had a manager in Yokohama and agents 
in several other cities, the government in that year in- 
creased the duty to sixteen sen per case. As the Standard 
Oil Company continued to bring in large quantities of oil, 
the government announced that on October 1, 1901, the 
duty would be doubled, making it thirty-two sen. This of 
course seriously affected the import trade. But those who 
get ahead of the Standard Oil Company must rise early. 
Undismayed, it proceeded to organize a local company un- 
der the laws of Japan, with a capital of $10,000,000. This 
company, nominally Japanese but really Standard Oil, ac- 
quired large holdings in the province of Echigo, sunk wells, 



278 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

erected a refinery^ laid pipe-lines, and proposed to handle 
the oil output of Japan. The outcome was a compromise 
to such mutual advantage as the circumstances permitted. 

It did not follow, however, that this plan could be suc- 
cessfully adopted by other foreign corporations. The 
Standard Oil Company had such unlimited capital that it 
could afford to lose a few millions if necessary in a fight for 
a market. Moreover, oil is a natural product, and the 
right to sink wells for it can be bought or leased without 
purchasing the land, for which indeed the company usually 
cares nothing. The average foreign investor had no money 
that he was willing to lose, and, besides, before he invested 
he usually insisted upon control. But foreign control was 
precisely what the Japanese would not grant. Their pride 
of independence is a national passion. They want the 
foreigner's ideas and inventions, but they will not brook 
his leadership. Foreigners can own land only in a ver}^ 
few places and under such restrictions as to make purchase 
almost prohibitive. Nearly all foreign properties are held 
imder lease or in the name of Japanese. Missionary work- 
ers feel under a constraint of conscience to give Christian 
teaching to Japan at any sacrifice; but business men do 
not deem it a duty to invest their money apart from the 
expectation of returns in hard cash. Japan therefore found 
great difficulty in securing the capital that she needed to 
develop her resources and finance her enterprises. 

One cannot but admire the courage with which the Japa- 
nese spent money on plants and equipment. They per- 
ceived that if they were to succeed against foreign competi- 
tion they must not begin on a small scale and wait for busi- 
ness to grow. Their competitors had the benefit of long 
experimenting and acciunulated capital, and the Japanese 
must risk ever}^thing on a bold plunge. This required 
nerve, for they had Httle money and their resources were 
largely undeveloped. But they dared to go ahead. By 
using what they had, by heavily taxing themselves, and by 
borrowing what they could, they proceeded to invest huge 
sums in mills, factories, railways, steamships, telegraph- 



JAPAN'S COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 279 

lines, post-offices, docking and terminal facilities. Deter- 
mined to make equal advance in other lines, enormous 
amounts were also expended on streets, roads, sanitation, 
the army, navy, and pubHc buildings. 

For years, this meant hard times in Japan. Everything 
was outgo, and of course income was not immediate. The 
gold in some of her banks went to a perilously low level. 
Convertible notes multipHed. The demand for foreign 
goods increased, for Japan wanted many things in machin- 
eiy, apparatus, and supplies that Europe and America had 
to sell. As there was at first Httle to sell in exchange, im- 
ports were heavily in excess of exports and gold was drained 
out of the country to meet the unfavorable balance of 
trade. 

But the plucky people persistently continued their policy, 
and gradually the tide began to turn. To-day, Japan has 
great machine-shops, mills, foundries, shipyards, and manu- 
facturing establishments of all kinds, equipped with the 
best modern machinery. More than 200 shipbuilding yards 
turn out hundreds of vessels yearly, three of them — the 
Mitsu-Bishi Dockyard and Engine Works of Nagasaki; the 
Kawasaki Docking Company, Ltd., of Kobe; and the Uraga 
Dock Company of Tokyo Bay — being among the largest 
and best-equipped in the world. The latest Japan Year- 
Book shows that since 1914 private yards for the construc- 
tion of steamships of more than 1,000 gross tons have in- 
creased their capacity two and one-half times. In a recent 
year 200,453 gross tons of merchant shipping were launched. 
The number of factories increased from 125 in 1883 to 
20,000 in 1917. 

The Japanese not only supply their own needs, but they 
have entered into vigorous competition with England, 
Germany, and the United States for the commerce of the 
world. They are making bicycles, guaranteed to be equal 
to ours, for twelve dollars. They are turning out matches 
at a price that is closing the Asiatic market to Western fac- 
tories. They can deliver sashes, doors, blinds, and wooden- 
ware in North and South America at so low a rate that 



280 THE iNlASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

.'American manufacturers would be driven out of business 
if they were not protected by a tariff. 

Special attention has been given to the manufacture of 
cotton yam and cloth. In the old days, the yarn was spun 
by hand and the cloth made on hand-looms in the homes 
of the people. But in 1865, the progressive Prince Shi- 
niadzu imported machinery from England and started at 
Kagoshima the first factory in Japan to spin and weave 
cotton by steam-power. His 6,000 spindles attracted wide 
attention and within a few years other factories were erected. 
By 1880, the business of cotton-manufacture had assumed 
considerable proportions. In 1897 American manufacturers 
besought a committee of Congress to protect them against 
the competition of the Japanese, and a little later Edward 
rVtkinson predicted that in the course of a few years thei 
Japanese would be able to supply the increasing wants of 
the modern world. Over 500,000 weavers were employed 
in 1895, and the growth since then has been so rapid that, 
in addition to supplying the home market, Japan in a single 
year exported nearly a hundred million dollars' worth of 
manufactured cotton goods. 

The Asiatic market for cotton cloth is almost unlimited. 
The millions of people in Korea and Manchuria wear cotton 
garments the year around. Only the rich wear silk, and 
their number is relatively small. The staple garment is 
made of heavy, cheap, cotton sheeting, which is bought 
unbleached and uncolored. It is then bleached if used in 
Korea, and if used in Manchuria is colored by the native 
dyers and made up into the various garments which the 
people wear. With the exception of the wealthy and 
official classes, every man, woman, and child wears these 
cotton garments. Not a yard of that cloth is manufactured 
in Korea or Manchuria, nor did a pound of cotton grow 
there. What business men call "the piece-goods trade" 
is therefore very great. The American Government sent 
Special Agent W. A. Graham Clark to Manchuria in 1906 
to inquire into trade conditions, and in his report he said: 
"Manchuria is a very important market for American flour. 



JAPAN'S COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 281 

oil; tobacco, etc., and especially for American piece goods. 
It is the only section of China in which American piece 
goods practically monopolize the market. . . . The trade 
of Manchuria is of more importance to the United States 
than to any other nation, wdth the possible exception of 
Japan.'' Desire to retain and enlarge this trade was one 
of the chief reasons which led Secretary of State John Hay 
to urge the poHcy of ^^The Open Door.'' 

Of course the Japanese want that trade themselves, and 
they are getting it. While they do not grow very much 
cotton, they are encouraging its cultivation. Meantime, 
their subsidized steamers and government railways bring 
cotton to their factories and take the manufactured product 
to the foreign market. The goods are sold locally through 
Japanese tradesmen, who swarm in Korea and Manchuria, 
and who can live more cheaply and are content with smaller 
profits than white men. In these circumstances, it is not 
surprising that the Japanese control these great markets. 

Nor are Korea and Manchuria their only objectives. 
The garment of blue cotton sheeting is the well-nigh uni- 
versal dress throughout the whole of Cliina. \^Tiile southern 
China is adapted to the cultivation of cotton and produces 
considerable quantities, northern China does not grow 
enough to be a serious factor in the situation, nor have the 
Chinese yet applied themselves to modern methods of cot- 
ton-manufacture on any considerable scale. The Chinese 
market is therefore one of enormous possibilities for the 
piece-goods trade. Japanese are after it, and the German, 
EngHshman, and American find them a competitor not to be 
despised. Substantially the same statements may be made 
regarding Siam, the Philippines, India, and Burma, and 
the Dutch islands. The hundreds of millions of people in 
these countries are also wearers of cotton which they buy 
in the piece. Their soil and climate are better adapted to 
the raising of cotton than the colder regions of Japan, Korea, 
and Manchuria. A good deal of it is raised, but compara- 
tively little is manufactured. Japan proposes to do this for 
them, and she is to-day shipping her cotton cloth and yarn 



282 TIIE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

not only to Korea, Manchuria; and China, but to Siberia, 
India, the Phihppines, the Dutch East Indies, the Straits 
Settlements, Australia, and the Hawaiian Islands. 

The United States fomierly had a generous share of the 
North China trade, but the Japanese developed their trade 
with such vigor and success that the National City Bank 
of New York announced in Februaiy, 1917, that in the 
short space of three years Japan had practically eliminated 
the United States as an exporter of cotton cloths to China, 
exports in 1916 having fallen to less than $200,000. In the 
same year Japan poured in cotton products to the value of 
nearly $60,000,000. 

Within thirty years following 1880, the foreign trade of 
Japan increased 1,419 per cent, and it has been mounting 
steadily since then. Japan buys most heavily abroad raw 
cotton and wool, iron and steel ingots, bars, rods and plates, 
pipes and fittings, machinery, tin plates, leather, kerosene, 
paraffine, lead, rubber, paper and paper-pulp, and food-sup- 
plies of various kinds. She sells in largest quantities raw 
and manufactured silk, wool and cotton goods, straw and 
hemp braids, porcelain, earthenware, and bean-oil. The 
difficulty of securing money, although very serious for a 
time, has now passed. The Japan of to-day has become so 
prosperous that her national credit is good in the banking 
circles of the world. Her currency, which a generation ago 
was as chaotic as China's, is now on a gold basis. There 
are 1,442 ordinary banks and 654 savings-banks. The 
leading institutions, Hke the Bank of Japan, the Yokohama 
Specie Bank, the Japanese Industrial Bank, and others that 
might be mentioned, have a recognized standing not only 
in Asia but in Europe and America. 

Modem industrial Japan can be best studied in Osaka, 
although scores of other places have also become important. 
The growth of Osaka has been prodigious. Its population 
in 1898 was 506,000, but to-day it is 1,387,366. Long be- 
fore our train reached it, we saw the pall-like smoke of its 
factories, and as we drew nearer tall chimneys were in evi- 



JAPAN'S COMMERCIAL DE\ ELOPMENT 283 

dence on every side. Articles of wide variety are manu- 
factured here. One finds wool and cotton factories, seed- 
oil mills, brick-yards, cement-works, match-factories, and 
dozens of plants of other kinds. 

Special permits were necessary to visit the establishments 
I wanted to see, but they were obtained without difficulty, 
and, taking jinrikishas (which by the way were more ex- 
pensive there than in any other city in Japan), we rode 
through the busy streets, crowded with shops full of ma- 
chinery, hardware, and staple goods of all kinds, to a great 
woollen-factory. One vast room contained 1,600 weaving- 
machines, managed by 800 women and girls, each attending 
to two machines. The racket of countless shuttles was in 
the air and imiumerable whirling belts confused the eye. 
Other hundreds of men and women were employed in the 
winding, dyeing, and printing departments. The machinery 
was of English and French make, and the wool came from 
Austrafia by way of France, where it was cleaned and carded, 
the factory paying 2.15 yen for a kilogram of wool. The 
whole plant was thoroughly modern in its appointments — 
spacious brick buildings, improved machinery, everything 
apparently that science could suggest and money procure. 
The Japanese owner had travelled widely in Europe and 
America, and was reputed to be an intelligent, progressive, 
and well-informed man. 

But in a comer of the factory yard I found a shrine con- 
taining a stone fox on a pedestal. My courteous Japanese 
guide from the firm^s office informed me, in answer to a 
question, that the fox was the guardian of the factory, that 
the owner worshipped it, and that once a year a festival 
of the employees and their f amiHes was held in honor of the 
fox ! Nor was this factory an exception. Most of the great 
factories in Osaka had similar shrines to Reynard. This 
significant fact is respectfully commended to those well- 
meaning gentlemen in America who are fond of telling us 
that civiHzation should precede Christianity and prepare 
the way for it. All that Japanese manufacturer's knowledge 



284 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

and appropriation of the most highly civilized appliances 
of the modem world did not prevent him from superstitiously 
bowing down to a stone fox. 

Several other cities illustrate the new commercial era in 
Japan, to a lesser degree indeed, but in a no less interesting 
way. Nagoya, for example, not only produces the exqui- 
site artistic articles of old Japan, to which I have referred 
on a preceding page, but also such modern staples as rail- 
way-cars, textile fabrics, and other useful articles. The 
population of the city has leaped from 160,000 in 1889 to 
nearly half a million, and its ambitious inhabitants hustle 
for it as energetically as if they were Yankees. 

When one considers the neglect of trade by feudal Japan 
until a few decades ago, he is amazed by the skill and per- 
sistence with which the new Japan is striving for mastery 
in the markets of the world. It is not easy for the white 
races to compete with them. They dominate the trade of 
Manchuria and a large part of the trade of central China 
and of the Pacific Ocean. They are competing with foreign 
and Chinese steamship-lines far up the Yang-tze River, 
planting their colonies in every port city of the Far East, 
and running their steamships to Europe, the United States, 
India, South Africa, AustraHa, and South America. 

The Japanese are skilful in getting trade, and American 
merchants might well learn a lesson from them. They send 
their agents to the leading towns of a country to make 
careful inquiiy about the kind of goods that the people 
want, including quality, color, price, and size of package. 
For example, the Korean, in order to make his peculiar 
garment to advantage, demands white cotton cloth eighteen 
inches wide. The Western exporter is apt to ignore this, 
and the consequence is that the Korean does not buy his 
cloth as there would be waste in cutting it. Japanese firms 
do not attempt to change the Korean sentiment but make 
the cloth of the desired width. Then they pack the goods 
in packages convenient in size and weight for handling by 
porters and for transportation on the backs of ponies and 
bullocks; while the more ignorant or careless foreign mer- 



JAPAN'S COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMEiNT 285 

chant ships in cases or bales so large and hea\y that they 
must be repacked before the goods can be carried into the 
interior. The Korean, too, wants his cotton veiy strong 
in order to stand the pounding of Korean laundry methods. 
The flimsy stuff that the foreigner sells quickly goes to pieces 
in washing. The shrewd Japanese, by careful attention 
to these details, gets the trade as he deserves to, while the 
white merchant curses the alleged stupidity of the Korean 
and "the trickery" of the Japanese. 

The advantages of Japan in commercial rivaliy with other 
nations are numerous. Control of transportation lines by 
land and sea, government subsidies, and, in the trade with 
Asia, short haul are very important factors. The Japanese 
are so near to the great markets of the mainland that they 
can fill an order from almost any of the principal cities in 
Korea, low^er Manchuria, and eastern China within a week 
or ten days. Labor is so cheap in Japan that the cost of 
production is much less than in Europe and the United 
States, and prices can be kept low consistently with good 
profits. The strain of longer hours and the lower scale of 
Hving sag efficiency below the standard of the American 
working men; but the supply is abimdant and the toilers 
are driven hard. 

The Japanese people, moreover, move as a unit in further- 
ing their commercial ambitions. Several of the great enter- 
prises of modern Japan are controlled either directly or in- 
directly by the government. In some instances, the govern- 
ment owns them outright; in other instances, high officials 
and members of the imperial family are heavy stockholders. 
By the railway-nationalization law and railway-purchase 
law of March, 1906, the government acquired all the lines 
in the country with the exception of a few of relatively small 
importance. Payment was made by public loan bonds 
aggregating nearly $250,000,000. The street-car lines in 
Tokyo are owned by the city, and government ownership 
of pubHc utilities is far more common than in America. 
The nation as a whole rules in commercial as well as in 
government affairs. The business man does not have to 



2S() THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

fight alone for foreign trade, as the American tradesman 
must. He has the backing of the country. AlHed indus- 
tries support him. Shipping companies give him every 
possible advantage. He is, to use an American term, a 
part of an immense ^' trust," only the trust is a government 
instead of a coiporation. 

Take, for example, the periodical excitement in the 
United States regarding the alleged purpose of Japan to 
secure a foothold on Magdalena Bay, Mexico. A Japa- 
nese writer declares that any effort of this kind, if made, 
would have no poHtical significance but would be merely 
an instance of a business coiporation obtaining an ordinary 
lease for purely commercial purposes such as an American 
corporation might seek in some Asiatic country. This is 
an excellent technical reply, but it is only technical. Ameri- 
cans have no such national soHdarity as the Japanese and 
their government has no such relation to their business 
ventures. Every one knows that when an American firm 
secures a lease in Asia, the arrangement has no political 
significance whatever either present or prospective, that the 
government of the United States does not work through the 
commercial ventures of its citizens, and that beyond giving 
half-hearted and perhaps inefficient protection in case of 
attack upon Ufe or property the government will not con- 
cern itself with the interests of its citizens abroad. When, 
however, a great Japanese company leases harbor and shore 
rights in a foreign country, the lease is virtually tantamount 
to a govenmient one, and it may be controlled as such at 
any time the government chooses. While, therefore, it 
may be literally correct to state that the Japanese Govern- 
ment is not trying to secure a base at Magdalena Bay, and 
that only a commercial company's lease is contemplated, 
the American people are quite right in giving the reported 
effort a pohtical meaning which would not attach to the 
effort of an American corporation to lease a harbor in 
Japan, which, by the way, the Japanese Government would 
never permit. 

The principal steamship-lines are so liberally subsidized 



JAPAN'S COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 287 

by the government and hire their seamen at such low 
wages that they can carry freight at rates that are impos- 
sible for American-owned steamships which have no sub- 
sidies and are obhged by law to employ a considerable por- 
tion of white men who demand reasonable wages. The 
result is that the carr^dng trade of the Pacific is in Japanese 
hands. The Merchant Marine League of San Francisco, 
in March; 1917, sponsored a statement by Mr. Louis Getz 
to the effect that the Nipponese steamship companies are 
permitted to charge foreigners whatever they please for 
moving freight, but are rigidly held down to a small margin 
of profit in dealing with Japanese 'shippers; that the freight 
on a cargo of beans from San Francisco to Manila is twenty 
dollars a ton in a subsidized Japanese ship ; but that if the 
same cargo is consigned to Kobe or Yokohama the freight 
charges are ten dollars a ton. A comparison of the rates 
charged for fifteen kinds of staple goods revealed that the 
citizens of Japan pay no higher freight rate for their neces- 
sities now than before the war, while the citizens of China 
and the PhiHppine Islands pay rates a hundred per cent 
higher. 

I heard much criticism of Japanese commercial methods. 
European and American business men spoke with great 
bitterness of their unfairness. They alleged that Japanese 
firms obtain railway rebates; that transportation-lines are 
so managed that Japanese firms have their freight promptly 
forwarded, while foreign firms are subject to ruinous delays; 
that foreign labels and trade-marks are placed upon in- 
ferior goods so that it is difficult to sell a genuine brand to 
an Asiatic as the latter believes that he can get the same 
brand from a Japanese at a lower price. They also alleged 
that foreign traders in Manchuria are compelled to pay full 
duties upon all goods, but that the Japanese, through their 
absolute control of the only railway, are able to evade the 
customs. It was said that of $12,000,000 worth of Japa- 
nese goods which went into Dairen in the year preceding my 
visit only $3,000,000 worth paid dut}^ For a long time 
Japanese goods were poured into Manchuria at Antung, on 



2^S THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

the Yalu River. Then foreign Powers advised the Chinese 
to place an inspector of the imperial Chinese customs at 
Antung. The Japanese could not oppose this, but they 
tried to have a Japanese inspector chosen. An American 
in the customs service, however, was appointed. His ex- 
perience in endeavoring to enforce the laws against the 
Japanese, if it is ever published, will make what Horace 
Greeley would have called ^^ mighty interesting reading." 

The rage and chagrin of European and American business 
men in the Far East can be imagined. A disgusted foreigner 
declared to me that there is not a white man in the Far 
East, except those who are in the employ of the Japanese, 
who are friendly to them, and that their dominant charac- 
teristics are ^'conceit and deceit.'^ He denied not only 
the honesty but even the courage of the Japanese, insisting 
that the capture of Port Arthur was not due to the bravery 
of the assailants but to the incompetence of the defenders. 
He said that the Russian soldiers were as heroic as any in 
the world but that their officers were drunkards and de- 
bauchees; that the War Department, which should have 
sustained them, was rotten with corruption; that at the 
battle of Liao-yang both Russian and Japanese generals 
gave the order for retreat at about the same time, each feel- 
ing that the battle was lost; but that the Russian regiments 
received their order first, and that as the Japanese saw them 
retreat they moved forward. He held that the anti- Japa- 
nese agitation in the pubHc schools of San Francisco was 
secretly fomented and made an international incident by 
the Japanese themselves, in order to divert attention from 
what they were doing in Manchuria; and more to the same 
effect. 

I have cited these opinions as they are illustrative of 
many that I heard in the Far East. I need hardly say that 
I regard them as unjust. Their very bitterness indicates 
the prejudice which gave birth to some of them and added 
exaggeration to others. Even if they were tme, the Japa- 
nese would simply be doing what it is notorious that some 
American corporations have often done. Rebates, adul- 



JAPAN'S COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 289 

teratioii; evasion of customs, short weight, unfair crushing 
of competitors, and kindred methods are not so unfamiliar 
to Americans that they can consistently lift hands of pious 
horror when they hear of them in Asia. 

The fact is that white traders until recently had pretty 
much their own way in the Far East. While some of them 
were men of high character and fair dealing, others cajoled 
and bullied and threatened and bribed the Asiatic to their 
hearts' content and their pockets' enrichment. They domi- 
nated the markets, charged what prices they pleased, and 
reaped enormous profits. When they got into trouble with 
local authorities they called upon their home governments 
to help them out of their scrapes. Now the white man 
finds himself face to face with an Asiatic who can play the 
same game and with all the odds in his favor. The Japanese 
want those rich markets for themselves. They are going 
after them and getting them. It is rather late in the day 
for white men to go into parox}^'sms of grief and indignation 
over commercial methods which they themselves have long 
practised. 

I do not mean that such methods should be condoned in 
the Japanese or any one else, and I gladly add that the 
American and British firms now engaged in the Asiatic 
trade include many men of the best business type and of 
high personal character. I am simply calling attention to 
the fact that the Japanese are a strong, alert, aggressive 
people who have precisely those ambitions for supremacy 
which characterize white men. It is unfortunately true that 
the general tone of commercial moraHty in Japan has been 
distinctly lower than in Western nations. This was proba- 
bly due to the fact that, "until comparatively recent years, 
business was largely in the hands of a low class of Japanese. 
Trading was long regarded as beneath the dignity of a 
gentleman. In the old feudal days, the knightly classes de- 
voted themselves to arms and despised traders as heartily 
as the ancient Jews despised the publicans. Besides, the 
priests of the old religions of Japan ignored the relation of 
religion to conduct and did not educate the popular mind 



290 THE MASTERY OF THE EAll EAST 

to that regard for truth which Christianity inculcates. As 
a consequence, the mercantile classes were chiefly recruited 
from men whose unscrupulous greed was proof against the 
contempt of their fellows — men who had no standing to be 
sacrificed, and whose trickery and dishonesty justified the 
ill repute in which they were popularly held. 

The notorious Doshisha scandal illustrated the resultant 
trouble to the foreigner. The title to the fine plant of this 
college of the American Board of Commissioners for For- 
eign Missions was vested m Japanese directors who held 
the property in trust for the American Board. But to the 
consternation of the friends of missions, the directors re- 
fused to acknowledge the rights of the real owners, and in 
Februaiy, 1898, actually repealed an ''irrevocable" con- 
stitutional provision that Christianity should always be 
the basis of instruction, banished religious teaching, and 
not only made the institution completely secular, but 
allowed anti-Christian addresses in the chapel. Protests 
were unavailing. Appeals to honor were received with in- 
creduHty. For a long time the Japanese could not be 
made to understand that they had committed an unrighteous 
breach of faith, and it was only after the most persistent 
efforts that the college was restored to a Christian basis. 

The Japanese long paid the penalty of the distrust which 
the Doshisha affair engendered, especially as many Japa- 
nese merchants guilelessly acted on the same principle. 
During my first visit a merchant refused to accept a large 
consignment of goods because the price had fallen since he 
had placed the order, and I was told that a foreigner could 
not always depend upon the deliver}^ of goods which he had 
bought of the Japanese, if the price had risen. 

When feudalism was aboHshed and the daimios and 
samurai were obliged to adapt themselves to the changed 
conditions of a society in which men had to earn their own 
living or starve, they naturally found military, naval, and 
civil offices more congenial than business, and their training 
fitted them for an efficiency in war and government which 
quickly brought Japan to the front in international affairs, 



JAPx\N'S COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 291 

as the Russians learned to their cost. After a tinie capable 
men realized that captains of industiy rank as high in the 
modern world as generals and admii^als; and render as valu- 
able service to their country, and that if Japan expected to 
take a place among strong and progressive nations, a due 
proportion of her best men must become bankers, manufac- 
turers, and railway and steamship managers. To-da}^ many 
of Japan's firms are managed by men of unquestioned 
probity and rehability, and the old gibe about Chinese 
tellers in Japanese banks has lost its point. Modem Japan 
is sensitive to considerations of business honor, and is out- 
spoken in condemning fraud. The Jiji Shimpo, an influen- 
tial journal in Tokyo, had a strong editorial on this subject 
in July, 1916, and the Japanese Consul-General at Bombay, 
India, frankly declared in a report: 

"Although I am confident that the credit of Japanese merchants 
in general is not so low as is represented by a small section of the 
foreign merchants, yet it is to be deplored as an indisputable fact that 
there is one sort of short-sighted dishonest Japanese merchants who 
are always eager to obtain a temporary profit just before their eyes, 
who resort to extremel}^ detestable and crafty expedients. They 
will send samples of goods far superior in quality in comparison with 
the price quoted, and when they receive orders according to these 
samples, they never manufacture goods equal to the samples in 
quality, but manufacture and ship inferior goods suitable to the 
price." 1 

Evidently intelligent Japanese are learning well the les- 
son that Western business men have learned f rem lara ex- 
perience — ^that a reputation for trustworthiness is the most 
valuable asset that a commercial house can have, and that 
the merchant who deals fairly with his customers prospers 
best in the long run. Japan has great commercial houses 
that are as honestly and capably managed as houses of 
corresponding rank in Europe and America, and their 
representatives in the metropolitan cities of other lands are 
men of unchallenged character and ability. 

1 Quoted in the Japan Weekly Chronicle, July 3, 1916. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN AUTOCRACY AND 
DEMOCRACY IN JAPAN 

The mighty democratic movement of the modem world 
has not failed to affect Japan. No nation in this era 
can wholly escape its influence. Whether it comes slowly 
or rapidly, peacefully or violently, come it does. John Vis- 
count Morley in his Recollections well says that ^^ alike 
with those who adore and those who detest it, the domi- 
nating force in the living mind of Europe for a long gen- 
eration after the overthrow of the French monarchy in 1830 
has been that marked way of looking at things, feeling them, 
handling them, judging main actors in them, for which, with 
a hundred kaleidoscopic turns, the accepted name is Lib- 
erahsm. . . . Respect for the dignity and worth of the 
individual is its root. It stands for pursuit of social good 
against class interest or dynastic interest. It stands for 
the subjection to human judgment of aU claims of external 
authority, whether in an organized church, or in more loosely 
gathered societies of believers, or in books held sacred. In 
lawmaking it does not neglect the higher characteristics of 
human nature, it attends to them first." 

This force has banished kings from North and South 
America, France, and Portugal; wrested power from throne 
and aristocracy in Great Britain; convinced sovereigns in 
Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Italy, and 
Greece that they must walk carefully as constitutional 
rulers; overturned autocratic government in Russia, and, 
aided by the invincible armies and navies of the free 
nations of the West, it has wrought the downfall of the 
haughty German Hohenzollerns and Austrian Hapsburgs, 
The race is emerging once for all from the stage of develop- 

292 



AUTOCRACY AND DEMOCRACY IN JAPAN 293 

ment in which, irrespective of personal qualifications, a few 
persons can be permitted to arrogate to themselves the right 
to rule as they please millions of their fellow men because 
they imagine themselves to be divinely appointed rulers 
by virtue of descent from ancestors, some of whom were 
dissolute idlers and most of whom, if compelled to earn 
their own living, would never have become anything more 
than clerks behind the ribbon counters of department 
stores. The few really great kings, like Albert of Belgium, 
do not need the trappings of inherited royalty, for they 
would have risen to eminence if they had been bom in 
cabins. 

A decade ago one might have supposed that Asia would 
be the last to reconstruct governments on the basis of the 
rights of the people. But to the amazement of mankind, the 
opening decades of the twentieth centur}^ saw the ground- 
swell of humanity beginning to manifest itself even in that 
age-old citadel of despotism. Persia and Turkey have seen 
the beginnings of constitutional government, poor and w^eak 
beginnings, travesties of freedom indeed, but nevertheless 
marking the inauguration of a new era. India is seething 
with the spirit of unrest. It was strenuously demanding a 
larger measure of self-government before the outbreak of 
the European War, and the assistance that the Indian 
princes gave to Great Britain in that titanic struggle was 
undoubtedly influenced in some degree by the expectation 
that they would be repaid by liberal concessions after the 
war. China has amazed the world by overthrowing her 
dynasty and estabhshing a repubhc, cariying thi'ough that 
stupendous revolution in an incredibly brief period and with 
less loss of life than attended a single battle of the European 
War, It is true that Yuan Shih Kai became a dictator 
under the title of President, but it was prof oundty significant 
that the repubHcan idea had gained such a hold upon the 
imagination of the Chinese people that when, December 
12, 1915, Yuan Shih Kai announced that he would become 
Emperor, rebellion immediately broke out and became so 
formidable that even that man of blood and iron found it 



294 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

pmdent to bow before the storm. January 23, 1916, he 
deemed it the part of wisdom to say that he would post- 
pone his coronation indefinitely; and March 23 he declared 
that he had decided to decline the " proffered ^^ crown. But 
he had lost the confidence of the country and stirred up a 
protest which made his position so impossible that his 
death, Jmie 6 of that year, was generally regarded as most 
opportune. China has a weary road to travel before the 
discordant elements of her vast population settle them- 
selves into a compact and well-governed repubhc; but the 
monarchy has gone beyond possibility of recovery. 

It was inevitable that Japan should feel the impulse of 
this rising tide of popular will. When one considers the 
histoiy and social and political organization of the Japa- 
nese people he is not surprised to find that the modern 
movement has made rather slow headway thus far. Feudal- 
ism was not abolished till 1871, and it was not till 1889 that 
the Constitution was formally promulgated. It was a great 
day for Japan when the first Imperial Diet convened, 
November 29, 1890. It consists of a House of Peers and 
a House of Representatives. The former comprises 379 
members as follows: 12 princes of the blood royal, 13 other 
princes and 33 marquises, all of whom have seats by virtue 
of their rank; 17 counts, 68 viscounts and 66 barons, chosen 
by the noblemen of these orders; 122 men of distinguished 
position appointed by the Emperor, and 48 of the largest 
taxpayers in the Empire. The House of Representatives 
is a popular body consisting of 381 members who are elected 
by male Japanese subjects not less than twenty-five years 
of age and paying a direct tax of ten yen or more. 

The House did not immediately find itself. Gradually, 
however, its members began to give voice to their opinions 
and even to criticise the acts or pohcies of the Cabinet. 
But the mental attitude developed by centuries of implicit 
obedience to feudal chieftains is not readily changed. The 
surprising thing is that the popular will has found any ex- 
pression at all within so short a period. To-day, debates in 
the Diet are often animated and sometimes sharply critical 



AUTOCRACY AND DEMOCRACY IN JAPAN 295 

of the government; and the daily and weekly press is out- 
spoken. 

But ruling classes everywhere do not lightly yield their 
prerogatives. They beHeve with the German philosopher 
Hegel that "the people is that portion of the state which 
does not know what it wills/ ^ and with the Prussian Minister 
von Rochow, who spoke of "the limited intelligence of sub- 
jects." In Japan, the ruling class has the power in its own 
hands. The aristocratic House of Peers is at a far remove 
from the people and wholly beyond their reach. The ad- 
ministration of the government is vested in a Cabinet of 
ten Ministers of State, including the Premier, appointed 
by the Emperor. A Privy Council with a President, Vice- 
President and twenty-four Councillors advises with the Em- 
peror in matters of importance. 

This organization of the state is a great advance upon 
the feudahsm which it supplanted, and it gives Japan a re- 
markably capable and efficient government. But modern 
Japan can hardly be called democratic. A nation which 
regards its sovereign as a ruler by divine right and a demi- 
god to be worshipped, and whose real government is not 
in the hands of any constitutional body or person but of a 
small group of "Elder Statesmen" — such a nation is not 
yet under the sway of those conceptions of popular govern- 
ment which are current in the most advanced Western 
nations. 

These Elder Statesmen, or Genro, constitute a body which 
should not be overlooked by any one who wishes to under- 
stand Japanese political affairs. They have no legal status. 
"They are not recognized in the Japanese Constitution 
nor in the laws of Japan." ^ They are merely a httle group 
of old men of high ranl^ who have become trusted advisers 
of the Emperor. The prerogatives of the crowTi are great, 
and they are exercised as the Elder Statesmen "advise." 
Theoretically the Cabinet represents the throne; prac- 
tically the Elder Statesmen represent it. The Japanese 
Cabinet does not wield the power of the British Cabinet. 

1 The Tokyo Ashai. 



296 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Changes in ministerial personnel seldom effect changes in 
national policy, for the Emperor remains and he does what 
the Genro tell him to do. The latter, therefore, are really 
the supreme governing body. Ministers rise and fall, but 
the Elder Statesmen abide, independent of Cabinet and 
Diet alike and beyond the reach of either. If the official 
bodies do not agree with the Genro, so much the worse for 
the official bodies. 

Seldom mindful of the opinion of the people, usually in- 
deed defiant of it, there was a time in the early months of 
1914 when the Genro deemed it prudent to do what astute 
political managers in America occasionally do — ^give out- 
ward recognition to a wave of popular feeling by acquiescing 
in the choice of a popular idol for high office, in the hope 
that if they cannot manage him directly they may be able 
to do so by their control of the agencies through which he 
will be obliged to work. Scandals in governmental depart- 
ments under Prime Minister Yamamoto stung the nation 
to the quick, and in the turmoil the Cabinet went to pieces. 
The Elder Statesmen chose diie "tmsted" man after an- 
other to form a new Cabinet, but no one of them could 
succeed. The situation was becoming serious when the 
great popularity of Marquis Shigenobu Okuma and the belief 
that his advanced age would prevent him from being active, 
at any rate for any considerable period, led the Genro to 
offer him the post. They did this with many misgivings, 
for Okuma was not a member of ^'The Old Guard ^^ but was 
the acknowledged head of the constitutional party. He 
stood as strongly as any one for the throne and for Im- 
perial Japan, but with due recognition of the voice of the 
nation as expressed through the Imperial Diet. But the 
people regarded him as the ^' Grand Old Man'^ of Japan, 
and popular demand for him became too loud to be pru- 
dently resisted at a time when '^The Old Guard ^' had been 
thrown on the defensive by disclosures of corruption which 
could not be excused. 

Okuma intensified both the misgivings of the Elder 
Statesmen and the hopes of the constitutionalists by the 



AUTOCRACY AND DEMOCRACY IN JAPAN 297 

Vigor with which he undertook reforms. He beHeved that 
a programme of peaceful development of internal social and 
economic conditions was more important than an aggres- 
sive foreign and militaristic policy. Unfortunately, the 
outbreak of the European War and the resultant changes in 
the Far Eastern situation worked a corresponding change in 
Okuma's poHcy. Foreign affairs quickly took precedence 
of internal ones. Questions of home administration fell 
into the background before Great Britain ^s request to drive 
the Germans out of the province of Shantung on the main- 
land, the opportunity to seize the German islands in the 
Pacific and thus eliminate a powerful rival to Japan^s 
pohcy of supremacy in the Far East, and, most attractive 
of all, the chance to strengthen Japan's influence in China 
while the European Powers were so preoccupied at home 
that they could interpose no effective objection. 

These developments necessarily brought the imperiahstic 
militaiy party to the front again and compelled Okuma to 
work wdth it. And so the world saw the interesting spec- 
tacle of the venerable advocate of popular rights and the 
precedence of internal affairs working hand in hand with the 
party which deemed the time propitious for estabHshing 
Japan's supremacy as the overlord of eastern Asia. This 
situation was not altogether agreeable to him and, together 
with the burden of great age, criticisms of his handling of 
relations with China, and an election scandal which in- 
volved his Minister of Home Affairs and weakened the in- 
fluence of the Cabinet, led him to the decision to resign his 
post as Prime Minister. It was significant of the power 
which the Elder Statesmen held that, before the pubhc 
announcement of his retirement, October 4, 1916, he re- 
spectfully asked permission of the Elder Statesmen, and 
that when he recommended Viscount Takaaki Kato as his 
successor, in accordance with the known wishes of the 
Diet, the Elder Statesmen calmly disregarded the recom- 
mendation and the popular will and chose Viscount Seiki 
Terauchi, then Governor-General of Korea. 

This selection illustrated not only the ascendancy of the 



298 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Elder Statesmen, but a trend in the government of Japan 
which is distinctively the reverse of democratic. The Elder 
Statesmen at this time were Prince Yamagata, Prince 
Oyama, and Marquis Matsukata, Pruice Yamagata being 
the dominant figure. These men, of great ability and force 
of character, were strongly of the opinion that the Cabinet 
should be responsible to the throne rather than to the Diet, 
which really meant that it be responsible to them. Marquis 
Okuma, however, was the head of the party which held 
that the Cabinet should be accountable to the Diet, and 
through that body to the people. The issue, therefore, was 
really between autocracy and democracy. And autocracy 
won. 

Great was the satisfaction in army circles and equally 
great the dissatisfaction in other quarters. The popular 
press, not only in America and Great Britain but in Japan, 
was outspoken in opposition. The objection was not so 
much to Terauchi personally as to the autocratic and mili- 
taristic party that he represented. The Tokyo Ashai 
sharply said: ^'The Genro should have respected the opin- 
ion of the Premier and should have paid attention to his 
recommendation of the leader of the majority as his suc- 
cessor." The Tokyo Nichi-nichi boldly declared: ^^ There is 
no doubt that a Terauchi ministiy will be opposed by the 
nation. The question is whether or not the government of 
Japan is to be conducted to forward the wishes of the 
people and whether the spirit of the Constitution is to be 
fulfilled.'^ The Japan Advertiser added : '' The Elder States- 
men have once more conferred on Japan a Cabinet devoid 
of any pretense of connection with representative institu- 
tions. Once more it is demonstrated that all the appur- 
tenances of popular government with which we are familiar 
— the voters, registers, the elections, the legislators, and the 
parties— are a Western fagade run up to modernize an old- 
style personal-government edifice of which the interior 
arrangements are imiquely Japanese.'^ 

While the autocracy of Japan is almost as absolute as 
was the autocracy of Russia prior to the revolution, it is a 



AUTOCRACY AND DEMOCRACY IN JAPAN 299 

more enlightened and efficient autocracy, and it put foward 
a good representative in Viscount Terauchi. He was an 
able, efficient, and masterful man, one of the outstanding 
personalities of Asia. He was, moreover, honest, patriotic 
and well-meaning. But he was an autocrat in eveiy fibre of 
his being. A field-marshal in the army, he was a soldier by 
training, profession, and temperament — a great soldier and 
a good autocrat— but pre-eminently a soldier and an auto- 
crat as distinguished from a civilian and a man of the 
people. He wanted to do what he deemed to be for the best 
interests of his coimtry. When he made mistakes they were 
not those of intention or corruption. He sincerely beheved 
that Japan can best fulfil its high destiny as a Power of the 
first class, and as the leader and guardian of eastern Asia 
against further aggressions of Western nations, by ha\dng 
a strong centralized government that is free to act without 
being obliged to obey a popular assembly, whose members 
might not act with adequate knowledge or under a due 
sense of responsibility. A Samurai of the Choshu Clan, 
to which Prince Yamagata and Prince Ito also belonged, 
born on February 5, 1852, he was a soldier from his youth. 
After his graduation from the Militar}^ Academy at Osaka, 
he was commissioned a subHeutenant in 1871. He re- 
ceived his baptism of fire in the civil war of K^oishu, in 
1878, in which he received a woimd which permanently 
disabled his right arm. The post of miHtary attache to 
the Japanese legation m Paris, from 1882 to 1885, gave 
him a knowledge of European mihtar}^ and diplomatic 
methods. After his return to Japan he became professor 
in the Military Academy. He was a Major-General in the 
China-Japan War. Then he was appointed Inspector- 
General of MiHtar}^ Education and Vice-Chief of the Gen- 
eral Staff. He was Minister of War in the Cabinet formed 
by Coimt Katsura, in 1902. He foresaw the coming strug- 
gle with Russia, and it was due m no small part to his re- 
markable ability and energ}^ that the Japanese army was 
so well prepared for its victorious progress through Korea 
and Manchuria. The grateful government made him a 



300 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Viscount. When, in 1911, the strongest available man 
was sought to succeed Prince Ito as Governor-General of 
Korea, Terauchi, still Minister of War, was chosen for that 
high office, which is to the Japanese what the Vice-Royalty 
of India is to the Biitish, and which, in Terauchi' s case, 
carried with it membership in the Supreme Military Coxm- 
cil of the Empii'e. His five years' administration of that 
great dependency is discussed in other chapters. From this 
post he was summoned by the Elder Statesmen to become 
the Prime Minister of Japan. He died November 3, 1919. 
The new Premier earty took occasion to assure public 
opinion in other countries of his pacific intentions by say- 
ing in a published statement: ''Since there seems to have 
been apprehension in some American circles as to the course 
I shall follow, I am willing and anxious to say that I have 
no desire to govern with the sword. One who expects that 
of me does not understand the tasks I have performed, 
nor the spirit in which I performed them." It is only fair 
for his critics to credit him with sincerity. He is a straight- 
forward man and he speaks frankly. Like some other great 
soldiers, he prefers peace to war. But his point of view is 
that of the army and the court rather than that of democ- 
racy in the British and American sense. Viscount, now 
Count, Terauchi was a strong Premier, but he was guided 
by the opinion of the Genro and not by that of the Diet 
as the representative of the nation. He believed that power 
should come from above and not from below, that the court 
and nobility should rule and that the people should obey. 
He was not a Gladstone but a Bismarck; with this differ- 
ence, that back of him were the all-powerful Elder States- 
men to whom even he had to bow. Japan during his prem- 
iership was efficiently governed, but the government was 
in the hands of the party which stood for absolutism and an 
imperiaHstic poHcy in the Far East. If Western nations 
imagined that they could henceforth decide Asiatic matters 
to suit themselves, as they had been doing in the past, 
they were reckoning without prudent regard for a Japan 
led by the masterful Yamagata and the resolute Terauchi. 



AUTOCRACY AND DEMOCRACY IN JAPAN 301 

A well-known Japanese in America, in defending his 
native land before an audience which was cheering the 
world's growing demand for popular government, rightly 
argued that '^democracy is no s}Tionym for repubhc/' 
But the situation in Japan hardly bears out his further 
statement that, if the former is rightly defined, ^^present- 
day Japan is as much a democracy as the United States, 
England, France, Italy and the newly formed democracy of 
Russia." It is true that Marquis Okuma himseK said to a 
newspaper reporter after his retirement from office: ^^ Japan 
is not ruled by a small group of poHticians, or by a minis- 
try, but by public opinion. It has been so for many years." ^ 
Perhaps he felt that patriotism made it desirable to speak 
in this way to the representative of a foreign newspaper. 
But he had said to his own people on a former occasion: 
"Certainly it does not appear to be the poHcy of Japanese 
diplomacy to voice the views of the people and their rep- 
resentatives in the Imperial Diet. Our Foreign Office has 
as a rule overlooked or disregarded pubHc opinion. In 
most countries the co-operation of public opinion and diplo- 
matic poKcy is thought to be most conducive to the best 
interests of the state; but in Japan diplomats are a class 
apart." ^ The Japan Society Bulletin of New York char- 
acterized the general election in the spring of 1917 as 
"a fight for control between the Military Bureaucrats and 
the ConstitutionaHsts."^ And "the Military Bureaucrats" 
prevailed. 

The attitude of the dominant party was significant^ 
illustrated within a few weeks after the Terauchi Cabinet 
took office. The Honorable Daikichiro Tagawa, a Chris- 
tian gentleman of high standing, formerly a member of the 
Imperial Diet, and for five years one of the two vice- 
mayors of Tokyo, published three articles in January, 1917, 
in which he criticised the government in language that 
would be considered commonplace in America, where the 

1 Interview reported in the Christian Herald, Dec. 13, 1916. 

2 Reported in the Japan Magazine, Tokyo, June, 1913. 

3 BuUetin of April 30, 1917. 



302 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

opponents of the party in power are accustomed to pour 
out vituperative tirades upon the President and his ad- 
visers. He compared the method of choosing a premier in 
Great Britain with the method in Japan; King George 
selecting the man whom the people desired, and the Emperor 
the man designated by the Elder Statesmen without regard 
to the popular will. ^^The whole Empire/^ added Mr. 
Tagawa; ^^ recognizes that the Terauchi Cabinet was formed 
by the Elder Statesmen rather than by the imperial com- 
mands. By such means it is futile to think that the people 
can be made to respect the imperial house. In fact it must 
be said with regret that the dignity of the imperial house 
has been not a little impaired by such procedure." 

This was held to be lese-majesty, as reflecting upon the 
Emperor and implying that he, who is of divine origin, is 
in the same class as King George and the men on thrones 
in other lands. At the instigation of the Cabinet Mr. 
Tagawa was arrested and sentenced to be imprisoned for 
five months and to pay a fine of one hundred dollars. Not 
only this, but Mr. Kashiwai, editor of the Bummei Hyoron, 
in which this article appeared, was also arrested and sen- 
tenced to two months' imprisonment and a fine of sixty 
dollars. Article XXIX of the Constitution guarantees that 
^'Japanese subjects shall, within the limits of law, enjoy 
the liberty of speech, writing, publication, pubHc meeting, 
and association,' ' but these writings were held to be not 
"within the limits of law." 

This stern decisiveness was displayed not only toward 
the press but toward the Imperial Diet itself. In January, 
1917, members of the House of Representatives ventured 
to raise the issue of parliamentaiy responsibility and a 
sharp debate ensued, vigorously led by Mr. Yukio Ozaki, 
leader of the Constitutional party, and Mr. Takashi Inukai, 
leader of the Kokuminto or National party. Believers in 
democratic institutions in other lands are glad to know 
that the party of the people is already strong enough in 
Japan to find bold advocates in the Diet. In this debate, 
the tide of opposition to the course of the government rose 



AUTOCRACY AND DEMOCRACY IN JAPAN 303 

high, and Terauchi found himself confronted with the 
probability of an adverse vote on a question of confidence 
in the ministry. He did not flinch an iota. Rising, he de- 
clared that the situation involved the prosperity of the 
Empire, and that while he maintained the confidence of the 
Emperor he could not accept the verdict of the House. 
Angry members rose to protest, but he stood his ground 
and demonstrated his power and his willingness to use 
it by having the Emperor dissolve the Diet January 25. 
The discomfited members had no alternative but to go home. 
This occurrence has been construed as supporting the 
opinion that Carl Crow expressed in his book entitled Japan 
and America— A Contrast: that Japan is absolutely ruled by 
a small group of resolute men who dominate the Emperor 
and the people alike so that the former is a mere puppet in 
their hands and the latter an ignorant and acquiescent 
proletariat which is not consulted in any important matter. 
But this is going too far. The Emperor of Japan is not 
"a mere puppet.'* It is true that the organization of the 
government and the course of affairs make it clear that, 
however great his constitutional powers may be, these 
powers are exercised through the Genro and the Premier 
whom the Genro virtually selects. But high rank among 
sovereigns must be accorded to the late Emperor, his Im- 
perial Majesty Mutsuhito, in whose long reign of forty-five 
years Japan passed from a backward to a progressive na- 
tion. The present Emperor, his Imperial Majesty Yoshi- 
hito, the one hundred and twenty-second Emperor of 
Japan, was bom August 31, 1879, and ascended the throne 
on the death of his honored father, July 30, 1912. While 
he is more frequently seen by his subjects than his prede- 
cessor was, his actual influence in affairs of state cannot 
yet be definitely appraised as his reign has not been long, 
and all governmental actions of course reach the pubHc 
through the Premier or other officials. General comment 
refers to him as a man of excellent character and inten- 
tions, intelligent, patriotic, and worthy of the respect of his 
people. 



304 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Nor am I willing to concede that the people of Japan 
are adequately described as '^an ignorant and acquiescent 
proletariat." It would be unreasonable to expect that the 
democratic spirit could pervade the people of Japan in sixty 
years to the extent that it has pervaded Western nations 
after hundreds of 3^ears. It is highly creditable to the Japa- 
nese that already they have developed a small group of ex- 
ceptionally strong and capable leaders to guide the nation 
through the period of transition. Some of these men, as for 
example Prince Ito, Marquis Okuma, and Viscount Kato, 
have high place among the progressive statesmen of the 
modern era. It is not surprising that long and deeply- 
rooted absolutism is still incarnated in other equally power- 
ful men and that the latter have succeeded in retaining the 
ascendancy for a time. 

The Japanese will work out the problem of relative pre- 
eminence in their own way. The issue of democracy versus 
autocracy is joined there as it has been everywhere else in 
the modern world. Men in the Island Empire are asking: 
Do the people exist for the state or the state for the people ? 
Should the cabinet be responsible to a monarch or to a 
parliament? Should final supremacy be lodged in an em- 
peror or in a body chosen by the people ? The parhamentary 
leader, Mr. Ozaki, said; shortly after an attempt had been 
made to assassinate him: "To make the situation as clear 
as possible to the American people, let me say simply that 
our aim is that the ministers of state who direct the affairs 
of this Empire shall be chosen with some regard for the 
make-up of the House of Representatives, which is elected 
by the people. That is, after all, the essential meaning 
of our Constitution." 

This element in the nation is certain to prevail sooner or 
later, for "the stars in their courses" fight for it. It had 
become strong enough by the summer of 1918 to make the 
tenure of Count Terauchi rather precarious, and on Sep- 
tember 21 he found it expedient to resign. He was suc- 
ceeded by the Honorable Kei Hara, leader of the Constitu- 
tional party known as Rikken Seiyukai, originally formed 



AUTOCRACY AND DEMOCRACY IN JAPAN 305 

by Prince Ito, and which had opposed the administration of 
Terauchi. Prime Minister Kei Hara was sixty-four years 
of age, a trained lawyer, an eminent journaHst (editor-in- 
chief of the Mainichi Shimbun of Osaka), and a man of 
considerable experience in diplomatic life, having served 
as Consul in Tien-tsin, China, Secretary and Charge d^Af- 
faires of the embassy in Paris in 1886, Director of the Com- 
mercial Bureau and Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs in 
Tokyo in 1895, Minister to Korea, 1896-1897, Minister of 
Communications, 1900-1901, and Minister of Home Affairs, 
1906-1907. He visited Europe and America in 1908-1909, 
and returned to the Ministry of Home Affairs in 1911, and 
again in 1913-1914. He was one of Prince Ito's principal 
supporters in founding the Seiyukai party in 1900, and in 
1914 he succeeded Marquis Saionji m its leadership. 

We may add that the English terms applied to political 
parties in Japan: Seiyukai (Liberal), Kenseikai (Con- 
servative, the result of a fusion in 1913 which supported 
the Cabinet of Marquis Okuma), and Kokuminto (Nation- 
alist-Progressive) should not be interpreted too literally, 
as these parties are often little more than groups around 
particular leaders. No one party has a majority, their 
present strength in the House of Representatives being: 
Seiyukai 162, Kenseikai 122, Kokuminto 36, Independents 
61, total 381. The important point now is that the party 
of which Mr. Hara is the head represents the strongest 
democratic tendencies. It is a long step from the plat- 
form of Count Terauchi to that of Mr. Hara. Both men 
have fine qualities; but the friends of Japan in other lands, 
while gladly recognizing the great abilities of the former 
Premier, naturally anticipate with satisfaction the develop- 
ment of democratic tendencies under the leadership of the 
latter, if the pohtical kaleidoscope does not soon take a 
turn that will displace him. He has surrounded himself 
with men of kindred spirit. The Foreign Minister is Vis- 
count Y. Uchida, a progressive man who is well and favor- 
ably known in America. He has had a conspicuous diplo- 
matic career for a man who is not yet fifty years of age, as 



306 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

he has not only had service as Minister of Foreign Affairs 
in Tokyo, but as Secretary of Legation in Peking and Lon- 
don, and Ambassador in Vienna and Washington. He 
knows the modern world. His wife, by the way, is a 
graduate of Vassar College, New York. The Minister of 
Home Affairs is Mr. Tokonami, who has visited Europe and 
America, and who, in 1912, when Vice-Minister of Home 
Affairs, was so impressed by the necessity of religion in a 
nation's Hfe that he arranged the conference of representa- 
tives of reUgions which we have described in another chapter. 
The outside world should not expect any sudden or de- 
cisive change in the national policy of Japan. The Seiyu- 
kai party is absolutely loyal to the traditions of historic 
Japan and is patriotic to the core. But it is far more 
democratic in its tendencies than the party that was rep- 
resented by Viscount Terauchi, and it favored co-operation 
with the United States in the Siberian intervention, which 
will be discussed in a later chapter. Of the three powerful 
Elder Statesmen, two are over eighty years of age, and the 
other has passed seventy. Li the course of nature, they 
must soon pass from the stage of human affairs, and it is 
doubtful whether they will have successors of the same 
type. Democratic sentiment among the Japanese has 
made striking growth within the last year, and it will surely 
prevail in time. That influential Japanese, Doctor Danjo 
Ebina, has said that ^Hhe German system suited the spirit 
of militarism and imperialism that still obtained in certain 
quarters, and gave to Japan a philosophy of absolutism 
which had a fascination for some minds," but that "the 
defeat of German militarism and imperialism on the battle- 
fields of Europe means the defeat of these docti-ines all the 
world over.'' He declares that "the greatest crisis in 
Japanese history is impending," and that "when this shell 
of Japanese nationaHsm breaks, the people of this country 
will become an international people, the universaHsm of 
Christ will take the place of Buddhism, and Christianity 
will become the religion of international Japan." ^ 

* Quoted in Millard's Review, Shanghai, August 17, 1918. 



CHAPTER XIX 
SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 

Despite the growing wealth of the nation, the poverty 
that stiU prevails among the masses of the common people 
is illustrated by the statement of the Honorable Yukio 
Ozaki, a member of the Imperial Diet, that there are only 
1,500,000 voters in all the Empire, although there are 
56,000,000 people in Japan proper, and the suffrage is given 
to all male citizens of twenty-five and over who own prop- 
erty enough to pay a direct tax of ten yen a year. The 
tax rate is so high that one does not have to own much 
property to be required to pay a tax of ten yen. 

The proportion of the population that is engaged in man- 
ual labor is large, and its condition is far from satisfactory. 
Three million seven hundred and seven thousand and eighty- 
eight famihes are wholly dependent upon farming for a 
livelihood, and 1,736,631 other families, although they have 
some other work, depend in large part upon what they raise 
from the soil. As Japanese families are prolific, this makes 
about 40,000,000 people who depend for subsistence either 
wholly or chiefly upon farming. High fertilization and in- 
tensive cultivation make the land yevy productive and the 
farmers usually have enough to eat; but as the average 
farm is only about two and a half acres and the average 
family is large, the daily fare is not abimdant. Meat is 
seldom eaten, the staple fare consisting of rice, vegetables, 
and an occasional fish. Few animals can be kept on these 
tiny plots. Only one farmer in three is said to own a horse 
or an ox, and men, women, and children toil early and late 
in doing by hand what an American farmer does by machin- 
ery. "The day-laborers on the farm receive wages ranging 
between nine and fifteen cents, though the latter have risen 
more than 100 per cent during the last fifteen years. With 

307 



308 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

this meagre income some of the laborers have to support 
their aged parents, wives, and children. The tenants, 
whose number bears the ratio of about two to one to that 
of the proprietors, live literally from hand to mouth and 
cannot always afford even the necessar}^ manure, and the 
proprietor's profit hardly rises above 5 per cent, while the 
capital he employs pays an interest of 15 to 30 per cent 
and his local and central taxes further reduce his income/' ^ 
The laboring classes in the larger towns are considerably 
worse off than in Western lands. The rapid development 
of manufacturing has brought great numbers of people into 
the cities for employment in the mills and factories. These 
working people are herded in overcrowded sections and 
their wages are so small that many of them cannot secure 
suitable food and healthful surroundings. Employees in 
most of the factories toil twelve hours a day and sometimes 
sixteen. Many of the factories are poorly ventilated and 
without safety or sanitary conveniences. Of the 853,864 
operatives, 535,297 are females. Multitudes are children, 
60 per cent being under twenty years of age, and 8 per cent 
being little girls. Many factories hold their girls and young 
women in virtual slavery, compelling them to live within 
stockades on such light food and in such unsanitary condi- 
tions that tuberculosis rages among them. Official reports 
show that '^ while the general death-rate from tubercular 
diseases is about 10 per cent, the death-rate from the same 
cause in printing-works and type-foundries is 49 per cent, 
and in cotton-spinning and weaving factories 35 per cent. 
The agents who seek operatives for the factories pay Httle 
attention to health and, in competition with one another, 
do not hesitate to employ even those who are positively ill. 
When the diseased operatives return to their native villages 
they spread germs broadcast among healthy people." Of 
the 200,000 girls who enter the factories each year, 120,000, 
according to A. M. Pooley, in Japan at the Cross Roads, 
never return to their homes, but drift from one factory to 
another till they are broken down or become open or clan- 

* K. Asakawa, The Russo-Japanese Conflict, pp. 5-7. 



SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 309 

destine prostitutes; while of the 80,000 who do go back to 
their famiHes 13,000 are ill. 

Strenuous efforts have been made b}^ enlightened Japa- 
nese in recent years to bring about better industrial condi- 
tions, and with partial success. Some manufacturers are 
providing for the welfare of their employees in the most 
approved modern way. Some good laws are now upon the 
statute-books. The employment of children under the 
age of twelve in any heavy and laborious work is forbidden^ 
and also the compelHng of boys under fifteen and women 
of any age to work more than twelve hours a day. But 
the struggle for existence in overcrowded cities, the pres- 
sure of competition, the eager desire for profits, the ab- 
normal demands for increased production caused by the 
European War, have thus far prevented adequate enforce- 
ment of legal requirements. Western lands are still far 
from perfect in this respect; but the condition of working 
people in Japan is undoubtedly low as compared with that 
of the corresponding classes in America. Men and women, 
and especially boys and girls, cannot work twelve hours a 
day, seven days a week, on poor food, in overcrowded quar- 
ters, and amid unsanitary surroundings without serious 
physical, intellectual and moral deterioration.^ 

Human life has long been held cheap among the Japa- 
nese. Some peoples who lightly value the lives of others 
are scrupulously careful of their own. But the Japanese 
do not hesitate to sacrifice their lives on various pretexts. 
I have discussed in another chapter the military significance 
of this fact, but we may note it here among the social phe- 
nomena of the nation. Suicides are common even among 
the young. According to official statistics, in a recent year 
241 youths under the age of sixteen committed suicide, 
801 between sixteen and twenty years of age, and 3,086 
between twenty and thirty. An American student who 
fails to pass his examinations never thinks of killing himself, 

^ Cf. Report on Industrial Conditions of Modem Japan, prepared by the 
Social Welfare Committee of the Conference of Federated Missions, 1916, 
and Doctor Sydney L. GuUck's Working Women of Japan. 



310 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

but every year Japanese students end their lives for this 
reason. One young man of nineteen years left the follow- 
ing lines: 

" Alas ! having missed the road to success, I go a sheep into the night. 
The days of a man's hfe are but fifty sad years — the end, dust." 

A favorite place for suicides is the beautiful Kegon 
Waterfall near Nikko. Doctor Sydney L. GuUck writes 
that "a brilhant and widely known university graduate 
flung himself into the river just above the waterfall. His 
battered body was found a few days later among the rocks 
six hundred feet below. He left behind a letter, which was 
published throughout the land and was in substance as 
follows : ' I have studied all that science and philosophy have 
to teach about the problem of existence. I have examined 
all the religions for their answers to the problem of human 
life. Nowhere have I found anything satisfactory. I now 
go into the other world to search for the solution myself.^ 
Presently another youth did the same thing, and then 
another, and still another. PoHce were stationed at the 
head of the waterfall to stop the tragedy, but without com- 
plete success. A barricade of stout posts fastened together 
by iron failed to stop the human cataract over those falls 
that for a thousand years had been connected with the 
pessimistic religious traditions of the land. In 1912 no 
fewer than 248 men and women ended their lives in that 
tragic way at that single spot. How many had ended their 
lives in the crater of Asama no records can show." 

Even maternal love sometimes fails to make a mother 
cling to her child when she believes that his honor is in- 
volved, although the point ma}^ concern only a school prize. 
In his Life of Japan, Mr. Masuji Miyakawa tells us that a 
Japanese mother would want her son to coromit suicide 
because he had failed to get a prize at school and another 
boy had received it. He says that when he was a school- 
boy in Tokyo, only six years old, ''his most faithful school- 
mate received a medal and he got none; his dear mother 



SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 311 

then told him he had better commit hari-kari, which even 
at that young age he thought strongly of doing.'' 

The social um'est which is creating such a ferment in 
Western countries has reached Japan, and although its 
manifestations have not yet appeared on a large scale, 
they have been prominent enough to indicate that a sig- 
nificant movement has begun. The government does not 
permit the kind of labor-unions with which America is 
familiar, but the principle of collective bargaining is rapidly 
gaining advocates. The Japanese laborer is not always as 
docile and submissive as his fathers were. The Japan Ad- 
vertiser reports that in a recent year there were strikes in- 
volving 9,000 workmen, but that in the following year there 
were 180 strikes in which 30,000 men participated. ^^In 
olden times,'' said Mr. Nakashoji, Minister of Agriculture 
and Commerce, ^'we very seldom had a labor question. 
Because of the relations between lords and subjects, sub- 
jects had to obey their lords. Lately, with the coming in 
of new ideas, disorder has arisen here and there." ^ 

During the European War the cost of living rose 80 per 
cent and, as in other lands, the profits of the enormous in- 
crease in manufactures and commerce were very unequally 
distributed. While some men accumulated huge fortunes, 
the wage-earning classes found that the prices of all neces- 
saries of life went up out of all proportion to the gain in 
their incomes. Wide-spread discontent resulted. In the 
summer of 1918, the large stores of food which the War 
Department felt obliged to accumulate for the Siberian ex- 
pedition, and the hoarding of the remaining rice by greedy 
speculators who charged exorbitant prices, caused a shortage 
of this staple which the Japanese deem so essential. The 
victimized people were not so submissive as they would 
have been in like circumstances a generation ago. Riots 
broke out in various parts of the country, and the situation 
became so serious that the government was forced to buy 
up all the rice in storage and sell it to the people at reason- 
able prices. 

1 Address, June 12, 1917. 



312 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

The Yuai Kai, a friendly association of workers, as near 
a labctt'-union as the laws permit, was founded in 1912 and 
already claims more than 30,000 members. Its President, 
Mr. Suzukui, visited the United States in 1916 and attended 
the meetings of the California State Federation of Labor, 
the International Seamen's Union of America, and the 
American Federation of Labor, where he was received as a 
fraternal delegate from Japan and brought into touch with 
the spirit of that powerful organization. It may not be 
long before the working men of Japan will secure some of 
the reforms which their brethren in Western lands have 
enforced. 

It is interesting to find that Socialism has also made its 
appearance in Japan. Several teachers in educational in- 
stitutions, and even in the imperial universities, are known 
to entertain socialistic views. Those who hold moderate 
opinions are not disturbed, but some alarm was felt when, 
in 1910, a band of men, who professed to be Socialists but 
who were more nearly anarchists, were discovered to be 
plotting against the government. Their leader, Kotoku, 
and twenty-five of his confederates were promptly arrested 
and given short shrift. Libraries were searched and every 
Socialist book and pamphlet was destroyed. Unfortunately, 
three or four of the plotters claimed to be Christians, and 
for a time the public was disposed to regard Christianity as 
the source of Socialism, and therefore to be opposed as the 
foe of the government, in spite of the fact that nearly all 
of the criminals were not Christians and that Kotoku was 
a violent hater of Christianity and the author of a book 
entitled An Argument for the Effacement of Christ, in which 
he bitterly arraigned the religion of Jesus as a superstitious 
fable and the enemy of all freedom. The excitement stirred 
up by this group of fanatics soon died down, but the au- 
thorities are keeping their eye on the socialistic propaganda, 
of which Japan, like Europe and America, has not seen 
the end. 

It is gratifying to note the rapid growth of humane move- 
ments in Japan. A Red Cross Society, organized in a 



SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 313 

small way in 1877, now enrolls over 2,000,000 members, 
including the Emperor, the Empress, and many of their 
most distinguished subjects. Its hospitals, physicians, 
nurses, and financial resources are prepared to meet almost 
any emergency. The Japan Society for the Humane Pro- 
tection of Animals finds congenial soil in a land where 
Buddhism, at least in theory, opposes the taking of life. 
The Prison Association of Japan, an influential society 
started a generation ago at the instigation of Doctor John 
C. Berry, an American missionary, has given much study 
to the subject of prison reform, has sent intelligent dele- 
gates to the meetings of the International Prison Congresses, 
and has been instrumental in abating some forms of cmel 
and inhimian punishments. Societies for the protection of 
children were later in starting, but in recent years large- 
hearted Japanese have been making earnest efforts to 
ameliorate the condition of orphans and other neglected 
waifs. Efforts for the blind have a needy field in a coun- 
try where their number is 141 for every 100,000 of the popu- 
lation, a proportion nearly double that in America and 
western Europe. Wide is the opportunity in many direc- 
tions, but the humane movement in Japan is well under 
way and is gaining strength and momentum every year. 

Intemperance is a more prevalent vice in Japan than 
the casual visitor reaHzes, as drinking is usually done in 
the home at night where the effects are quietly slept off 
before the next day. Drunkenness is therefore less con- 
spicuous than in Western lands, where a greater proportion 
of the drinking is done in public saloons and other places 
outside of the home and an intoxicated man reels out on 
the street. Buddhism is a prohibition religion in theor}^, 
but its adherents seldom practise it in Japan. While beer 
has become popular, sake (rice liquor) is the national bever- 
age. One hundred and sixty million gallons are made in 
an average year, and the revenue tax is a prolific source of 
iacome to the government. Protest against this evil is 
not wanting. A temperance society was started as early as 
1875. There are now over two himdred such societies, and 



314 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

their membership is rapidh- growing. This cause has a 
powerful advocate in the Honorable Sho Nemoto, a member 
of the Imperial Diet. 

The position of woman is imdergoing change Uke almost 
everything else in Japan. Happy homes, love between 
husbands and wives, respect for mothers, and tender care 
of children have long existed in Japan. "Most entertain- 
ing things are WTitten by foreigners about marriage forced 
upon unwilling brides, and even of marriages by purchase," 
keenly observes Professor Inazo Nitobe. ''I may just as 
truly amuse and instruct my own people with stories about 
ambitious American parents practically selling their daugh- 
ters to European nobles, or of the sorrows of ^mariage de 
convenance' in Europe. There are certainly more oppor- 
tunities for American girls to marry the men whom they 
most love, and, vice versa, for men to take to wife girls 
whom they like best; but I doubt whether the proportion 
of happy unions is very different in the two countries.'^ ^ 

The general fact remains, however, that the status of 
Japanese women as a class has always been and still is be- 
low that of men. They were not considered by men, and 
they did not consider themselves, as equals of the other 
sex. In a widely circulated volume entitled Great Learning 
for Women, it is said that "the five worst maladies that 
affect the female mind are indocility, discontent, slander, 
jealousy, and silliness. Without doubt these five maladies 
affect seven or eight out of every ten women." As late as 
1871 the Emperor said: "Japanese women are without un- 
derstanding." The popular notion was that of the Con- 
fucian maxim: "It is no undesirable thing for a wife to be 
stupid, whereas a wise woman is more likely to be a curse 
in a family than a blessing." Daughters were seldom de- 
sired and, especially among the lower classes, were given 
scant consideration and often sold to brothel-keepers, or 
encouraged to go there of themselves. 

In a striking article in the Shin Nikon for August, 1917, 
Marquis Okuma wrote: "In early days, the intercourse of 

^ The Japanese Nation^ p. 163. 



SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 315 

men and women was little above the animals. . . . Then 
came Christianity to show the higher path and to give 
clear, strict teaching about one husband and one wife, which 
has gradually influenced the world. ... In feudal times 
women were hardly regarded as human beings of the same 
kind as men and were too severely restricted. Women 
ought to be well educated, but it was thought bad for them 
to know much, so they were instructed in little except the 
duty of submission. They were supposed to exist only for 
the pleasure and use of men, who laid down the rules which 
suited themselves. The time has come when those old ways 
will no longer serve us. . . . Women are demanding social 
and political equahty with men. Now, if this demand arises 
naturally from circumstances or necessity, well and good; 
but if it only comes from jealousy of men, or the ambition 
to be Hke them, or such shallow motives, it has no value 
at all. If women obtain powers with only these uncentred 
ideas, and enter freely into many activities, it is impossible 
to say how much harm may be done. If women imitate 
the reckless behavior of men, the world, dark enough al- 
ready, will become darker still. . . . This women^s ques- 
tion is not one which can be neglected with impunity. It 
is chattered about carelessly by young people; but it is 
plain that sooner or later it will become a problem of burn- 
ing importance in intimate connection with our practical life.'' 
Missionaries from the West taught the Christian ideas 
of the equality of the sexes, and gave an object-lesson in the 
treatment of their own wives and daughters which Japanese 
women did not fail to obsen^e. Mission schools for girls 
were opened. Their attendance was small at first, but in 
time they became popular. A pioneer in this work for the 
Christian education of women was Miss Juha N. Crosby of 
the Woman's Union Missionary Society of America, who, 
with Mrs. Louise H. Pierson and Mrs. Samuel Pruyn, 
founded a boarding-school for girls in Yokohama in 1870. 
The Emperor fittingly recognized her inestimable services 
to Japan by conferring upon her in 1917 the decoration of 
the blue ribbon. 



316 TilE MASTERY OE THE FAR EAST 

Today, maiiy thousands of girls are being educated in 
both government and private schools, and highly educated 
women are to be found in all the leading cities and in many 
of the smaller towns. The wives of Japanese diplomatic 
and consular officials and of j)rominent business men in 
Europe and America are famous for their cultivated grace 
of manner. A social function under the auspices of the 
Japan Society of New York brings together as charming 
and intelKgent a company of Japanese women as one could 
meet an}nvhere, and they do not suffer in comparison with 
their American sisters. 

The marriage tie is more frequently broken in Japan than 
in any country of Europe or America. This is saying a 
good deal, for the breaking up of homes in the United States 
is disgracefully common. Statistics of divorce, compiled 
by Professor W. B. Bailey of Yale University for the eleven 
leading nations, show that the proportion of divorces is 
three times higher in Japan than in the next highest coun- 
try, the United States, the ratio being 215 per 100,000 of 
the population in Japan, to 73 in the United States. Pro- 
fessor Inazo Nitobe, while frankly admitting that ^Hhe 
number of divorces is appalling and a disgrace to our family 
system," adds: "I have purposely said that this is a dis- 
grace to our family system, avoiding the term marriage 
system; for in a large proportion of our divorces the cause 
is to be found not in the rupture of conjugal relations, but 
in the custom of a married son living imder the same roof 
with his parents; in short, in the universally notorious rela- 
tionship between a wife and a mother-in-law! It argues 
a marvellous amoimt of fortitude and sweetness in the 
women of Japan that they bear the burden of wifehood and 
motherhood under conditions so exacting.'^ ^ 

Certain it is that the women of Japan are bestirring them- 
selves. Like their sisters in Western lands, some of them 
are entering business, journalism, medicine, nursing, and 
philanthropy. Stenography, typewriting, and telephoning 
are largely in their hands. Prominent women are active in 

1 The Japanese Nation, p. 164. 



SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 317 

social and temperance refonn. Madame Yajima is known 
all over Japan for her able leadership in these reforms. 
Whether the enlightened and enfranchised women of the 
new era, in both the East and the West, will acquiesce in 
the kind of treatment to which their mothers and grand- 
mothers more or less meekly yielded remains to be seen. 
I suspect that the male '4ords of creation" will hereafter 
be obhged to recognize the fact that the days of their im- 
challenged domination are about over. 



CHAPTER XX 
EDUCATION IN JAPAN 

Japan has had schools and books from a remote antiquity. 
The first impetus to intellectual culture came from China, 
whose literature and civilization antedated those of Japan 
by many centuries. The earliest Chinese books to reach 
Japan are supposed to have arrived 284 A. D. The earliest 
extant Japanese book appeared in Chinese characters in 
the second decade of the eighth century. It is probable 
that many books preceded it that long since disappeared. 
This particular book, the Kojiki, is a ^'Record of Ancient 
Happenings" and gives an alleged history of Japan from 
'Hhe beginning/' but one which mingles fact, tradition, 
myth, and legend in hopeless confusion. The art of printing 
by movable wooden-block types, which also was introduced 
from China in the eighth century, enabled the Japanese to 
multiply their own books, and the ninth, tenth, and eleventh 
centuries were prolific in literature. 

The period of internecine strife between rival clans made 
the following centuries intellectually barren; but with the 
"Great Peace" which began in the seventeenth century, 
the minds of thoughtful men again turned to learning and 
books and pamphlets became numerous. Most of them 
bore the unmistakable stamp of Chinese influence, being 
either Chinese classics or Japanese books that derived their 
thought and style in large measure from them. With the 
exception of a few sporadic books, the literature of Europe 
and America did not appear in Japan until the modern era 
which opened with the arrival of Commodore Perry in 1853. 
Since then, there has been a remarkable quickening and 
broadening of intellectual Hfe. To-day, Japan has printing- 
presses of the latest t3qDe, and libraries well stocked wdth the 
world's best volumes on histoiy and art, science and political 

318 



EDUCATION IN JAPAN 319 

economy^ philosophy and rehgion. Books in Japanese and 
Enghsh are pubhshed and imported m great quantities. 
Newspapers and magazines are numerous and widely read; 
and there are scholars and authors of international fame. 

The first school in Japan of which there is any record 
was founded 664 A. D. The educational system which fol- 
lowed; if it could be called educational; was of the familiar 
type in eastern Asia prior to the coming of missionaries 
from the West — a mere memorizing of ancient classics and 
the composition of rhetorical essays about them. Educa- 
tion in the modern sense was begun by the missionaries who 
arrived in 1859. They founded the first schools which in- 
troduced Western learning into Japan. Imperfect though 
they were from the view-point of present-day pedagogical 
standards; they were a vast improvement upon anything 
that Japan had hitherto known. 

The awakening of the Japanese mind in the new era 
resulted not only in political and industrial changes but in 
a new intellectual life which soon demanded a national 
system of education. The fifth of the five articles of the 
oath promulgated by the Emperor; April 6; 1868, declared : 
^^ Knowledge shall be sought for throughout the world; so 
that the welfare of the Empire may be promulgated.^^ 

The deputation which sailed from Japan in 1871 to study 
the institutions and methods of Western nations included 
two men; Mr. Kido and Mr. Okubo, who gave special at- 
tention to education. They were deeply impressed by the 
general diffusion of intelligence among the people of America; 
and they speedily came to the conclusion expressed by Mr. 
Okubo in the words: '^We must first educate leaders and 
the rest will follow." Mr. Kido added: "We must educate 
the masseS; for unless the people are trained they cannot 
follow their leaderS; or, if they follow, it will never do for 
them to follow blindly." 

A Department of Education was established and the first 
educational regulations were issued in September; 1872. 
The preamble of this historic document declared that 
"the cultivation of morals; the improvement of intellect. 



320 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

and proficiency in arts cannot be attained except through 
learning. This is the reason why schools are estabhshed/' 

The Japanese cordially acknowledge their indebtedness 
to the United States for guidance in educational matters: 
Doctor K. Ibuka, President of the Meiji Gakuin, Tokj^o, 
says that ^^when Japan reached out after Western ideas, she 
copied her navy from Great Britain, her army from France, 
her medical science from Germany, and her educational sys- 
tem from America." The constructive genius whose name 
will always have an honored place in the history of Japan's 
educational development was the American, David Murray, 
Ph.D., LL.D., who was the adviser of the government 
Department of Education from 1873 to 1879. He was the 
real master builder of Japan's modem system of education. 
An extensive programme was mapped out, beginning with 
primary schools and cuhninating in the Imperial University 
in the capital. Several trained educators from Western 
lands were invited to fill important professorships imtil the 
new institutions were able to turn out highly qualified men 
of their own. The Emperor declared : ''It is intended that 
henceforth education shall be so devised that there may 
not be a village with an ignorant family or a family with an 
ignorant member." 

Education in Japan is not left so largely to local control 
as in America. It is administered by the national govern- 
ment through a Department of Education, which is sub- 
divided into three bureaus: General Education, Special 
Education, and Religions. A few institutions, like the 
Peers' School, the Nautical School, the Post and Telegraph 
School, and the military and naval colleges, are related to 
other departments of the government, but they are none 
the less under the supervision of the authorities. 

The basis of instruction in morals is the following imperial 
rescript of October 30, 1890, which is posted in every school 
and is certainly admirable as far as it goes: 

"Know Ye, Our Subjects: Our Imperial Ancestors have founded 
our Empire on a basis broad and everlasting, and have deeply and 



EDUCATION IN JAPAN 321 

firmly implanted virtue. Our subjects, ever united in loyalty and 
filial piety, have from generation to generation illustrated the beauty 
thereof. This is the glory and fundamental character of our Empire, 
and herein also lies the source of our education. Ye, our subjects, 
be filial to your parents, affectionate to your brothers and sisters; as 
husbands and wives, be harmonious ; as friends, true ; bear yourselves 
in modesty and moderation; extend your benevolence to all; pursue 
learning and cultivate the arts and thereby develop intellectual 
faculties and perfect moral powers; furthermore, advance public 
good and promote common interests; always respect the Constitution 
and observe the laws; should emergency arise, offer yourselves cou- 
rageously to the State and thus guard and maintain the prosperity of 
our Imperial Throne coeval with heaven and earth. So shall ye not 
only be our good and faithful subjects but render illustrious the best 
traditions of your forefathers. The way here set forth is indeed the 
teaching bequeathed by our Imperial Ancestors to be observed alike 
by their descendants and the subjects, infallible for all ages and true 
in all places. It is our wish to take it to heart in all reverence, in 
common with you our subjects, that we may all thus attain to the 
same virtue.** 

All public schools are forbidden to teach religion, the 
governmental educational policy being one of neutrality be- 
tween the various religious faiths of the empire. This neu- 
trality, however, is often in theory rather than in fact, 
since the government does not consider Shinto ceremonies 
religious, as nearly everybody else does, and since the large 
preponderance of Buddhist and anti-Christian teachers 
naturally creates an atmosphere unfavorable to Christi- 
anity and colors the instmction in many departments,, 
particularly those in ethics, science, and philosophy. More- 
over, some of the required ceremonies, which the govern- 
ment considers patriotic rather than religious, are deemed 
religious in fact not only by foreigners but by many Chris- 
tian Japanese; as, for example, the worship of the picture 
of the Emperor, and the acts of veneration to the spirits of 
the imperial ancestors. Painful experience has taught the 
Christians of Japan that they must maintain their own 
schools and colleges if they are to secure educated leaders 
for their churches. Private schools are permitted to exist 
and may teach religion; but their curricula must be ap- 



322 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

proved by the Department of Education, which demands 
satisfactoiy courses, text-books, methods, and qualified 
teachers under penalty of exclusion of their graduates from 
the government universities and technical schools. As the 
diplomas of these universities and technical schools are 
virtually essential to civil, militaiy, or naval preferment, the 
consequences of failure to meet the government require- 
ments are not light. 

The latest official reports of the pubHc schools fist 25,673 
elementary schools, with 158,601 teachers and 7,037,430 
pupils; 317 middle schools with 6,220 teachers and 128,- 
973 pupils; 299 high schools with 3,818 teachers and 71,280 
pupils; 4 imperial universities with 792 professors and in- 
structors and 8,946 students; and 792 technical schools with 
7,505 teachers and 428,732 students. Including some mis- 
cellaneous schools not classified under these headings, the 
total number of schools is 36,776 with 188,967 teachers, and 
7,893,719 pupils. One million three hundred and twenty- 
two thousand nine hundred and ninety-one were graduated 
in a recent year. Ninety-eight per cent of the boys of school 
age are enrolled, and 96 per cent of the girls. The average 
daily attendance is 92 per cent — ^the highest record of any 
countiy in the world. Russia has only 25 per cent of her 
children of school age enrolled in schools. With less than 
one-third of Russia's population, Japan has a larger actual 
as well as relative school attendance and spends four times 
as much money on public education. The leading institu- 
tion, the Imperial University in Tokyo, is one of the best 
equipped universities in the world, with every facility in 
buildings, laboratories, and libraries, and with a faculty 
which includes some men of international reputation. The 
largest of the private institutions is the famous Waseda 
University, also in Tokyo, founded by Marquis Okuma, 
but of course conducted in full conformity with the stand- 
ards of the government, of which he was long such an in- 
fluential member. 

I visited a number of the public schools and was very 
favorably impressed. Discipline is about perfect, as might 



EDUCATION IN JAPAN 323 

be expected; for teachers are regarded as virtually officials 
of the government, and the Japanese by temperament and 
hereditar}^ training are obedient to authority. This may 
account; in some degree at least, for the high records in at- 
tendance, punctuality, and deportment. But Japanese 
schools are also notable for the quickness with which the 
pupils learn their lessons. AVherever I went I found hand- 
some, commodious, well-equipped school-buildings. In one 
school I visited in Kyoto, 1,600 pupils were enrolled, the 
ages being from eleven to fifteen. The grounds and build- 
ings were so extensive that there was no undue crowding. 
The order was excellent, and the apparatus as complete as 
in any public school I have seen in America. 

My visit to the public schools in Kanazawa occurred on a 
raw day in early spring, when I was glad to wear my heavy 
clothing; but most of the children were bare-footed, and the 
teachers told me that the boys and girls often came to 
school through the winter snow without footwear. This 
is not to be wholly attributed to a desire for learning, as 
the teacher also said that the children were eager to play 
in the snow. Japanese children are not accustomed to 
protecting themselves against the cold as we do; but the 
striking thing was that with insufficient clothing and in 
poorly heated rooms they sat so quietly at their lessons 
during the long hours of study. 

Japanese school children have a harder time in getting 
an education than the children in other lands. Japanese 
youths are so ambitious to obtain the education that opens 
the way for preferment in life that the government has not 
yet been able to provide sufficient buildings, equipment, 
and teachers to accommodate the throngs of applicants. 
Partly because this fact compels selection and partly be- 
cause the government insists upon a high standard, the 
examinations are made very severe. Doctor Nitobe says 
that the number of candidates for admission to the freshman 
class of the college in Tokyo is usually seven or eight times 
the number that can be received. He adds: '^It is a very 
touching sight to watch some 2,000 boys, the pick of our 



324 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

}'outh from all parts of the empire, flocking to the college 
for examination — to watch them at their hea^^ task, all 
the time knowing that seven out of every eight will be dis- 
appointed. Those who fail one year can try again; a 
great many do try three or four times, and in exceptional 
cases seven or eight times, one instance of perseverance 
being on record where success crowned the fourteenth at- 
tempt." 

The task of the Japanese school children is seriously in- 
tensified by the nature of the written language. When 
Japan received her civiHzation, reHgion, and learning from 
China, she received with them the Chinese character. The 
Japanese gave their own pronunciation to the Chinese 
ideographs, so that the spoken language became quite dis- 
tinct from the Chinese, but the written language is a curious 
mixture of Chinese and Japanese elements. Professor 
Tanakadate, of the Imperial University of Tokyo, says: 
"The Japanese student must learn the language and the 
method of its representation in a system which is foreign 
to the nature of the language. The number of these Chi- 
nese characters amoimts to over 50,000, of which about 
3,000 are used in daily life. Each of these characters has 
two or three, sometimes five or six, different meanings, so 
that the learning of 3,000 amounts really to that of more 
than 10,000." 

The result, as frankly stated in Marquis Okuma^s Fifty 
Years of New Japan, is that ''Japanese students to-day are 
attempting what is only possible to the strongest and clever- 
est of them, that is to say, two or three in every hundred. 
They are tr}dng to learn their own language, which is in 
reality two languages, blended or confused the one with the 
other, according to the point of view, while attempting to 
learn English and German, and in addition studying tech- 
nical subjects like law, medicine, engineering or science." 
As far back as the year 809, a priest, Kobo Daishi, devised 
a syllabary of forty-seven symbols. Many attempts at simpli- 
fication have been made since. Modern authorities tried 
some years ago to lessen the confusion by limiting the num- 



EDUCATION IN JAPAN 325 

ber of Chinese characters to be taught in the lower schools 
to twelve hundred. As this was considered almost revo- 
lutionary, a virtual discarding of Chinese classics in favor 
of more modern literature, a foreigner can but dimly imagine 
the labors of the Japanese boy under the old system. It is 
more difficult to limit the use of Chinese in the higher in- 
stitutions, for many of the modern scientific and philosophi- 
cal terms, while not easy to translate at all, can now be better 
expressed in Chinese characters than in vernacular Japa- 
nese. The demand for the adoption of the Roman alphabet 
is steadily gaining ground in Japan as it is in China, and 
has the powerful backing of m_any of Japan's leading edu- 
cators, including, besides those already mentioned. Baron 
Kikuchi, formerly president of the Peers' School and the 
Imperial University and Minister of Education in the Im- 
perial Cabinet. He sa3^s that the change to Roman letters 
must come, although it wdll come ver}^ slowly since long 
established usage is to be overcome. 

Under present conditions the strain upon students is 
heavy and prolonged. The combination of severe examina- 
tions and a cumbersome language constitute formidable 
handicaps. University professors declare that many stu- 
dents break down during their course; that those who do 
get through ^^ require six or eight years longer to acquire a 
imiversity education than in other countries," and that 
"the number of students who reach the age of thirty by the 
time they have finished their university course is very 
large." 

An imperial rescript, issued September 20, 1917, an- 
nounced that "We, in view of the situation at home and 
abroad, and in consideration of the future of the Empire, 
have thought it advisable to organize an educational com- 
mittee in the Cabinet, empowering it to deliberate on edu- 
cational affairs in Japan, so that progress of education may 
be attained. We hereby approve the organic regulations 
of the Extraordinary Educational Conference and order 
them to be pubhshed." This committee went vigorously 
to work under the chairmanship of Viscount T. Hirata, 



326 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

formerly Minister of Home Affairs, and Baron Y. Kubota, 
formerly Minister of Education, as vice-chairman, and the 
whole educational system of the country was carefully 
studied with a view to ascertaining what improvements 
could be made. It will be noted, therefore, that the Japa- 
nese are thoroughly modern and progressive in their edu- 
cational ambitions. They want the best methods and they 
are sparing no effort to develop them. 

Speaking broadly, the Asiatic mind is more imitative and 
less constructive than the mind of the Anglo-Saxon, It 
commits a lesson to memory in school more easily, but it is 
less resourceful and energetic in the practical duties of Hfe. 
Observers have long noted that the East Indian youth, who 
easily outstrips his duller English schoolmate in the class- 
room, is likely to be the latter's clerk ten years after gradua- 
tion, not merely because of his race but because of his com- 
parative lack of constructive ability and aggressiveness. 
He is better fitted to copy than to create, to do something 
that has been marked out for him than to mark out some- 
thing for himself. There are, of course, many exceptions 
to this. Some Asiatics are born leaders, as both ancient 
and modern history clearly shows; and many Anglo-Saxons 
are content to be followers. Making all due allowance, how- 
ever, for exceptions, the generalization holds, although the 
proportion of exceptions is larger in Japan than in China 
and Korea. Imitation is natural in such circumstances, 
since the first task of an awakened people is to catch up with 
the peoples who have gone further. It is not surprising, 
therefore, that Japan as a whole is utilizing the inventions 
and discoveries of Western nations rather than making its 
own. 

The Japanese, however, are catching up with extraordi- 
nary rapidity. Indeed in some directions they are now fully 
abreast of Western nations. They have already made 
some additions to the stock of the world's knowledge and 
appliances, and they will undoubtedly make more as a 
larger number of their capable men take their positions in 
the front rank of the progressive movements of modern 



EDUCATION IN J.\PAN 327 

civilization. Some of the ablest statesmen, generals, ad- 
mirals and professional and business men of the modern 
world are Japanese, and almost every year sees new figures 
of commanding proportions. Modern Japan has educators, 
authors and lecturers who are widely and favorably known 
outside of their own land, and she can point with just 
pride to specialists of recognized standing in the field of 
scientific research and discovery. 



CHAPTER XXI 
BUDDHISM AND SHINTOISM IN JAPAN 

Buddhism entered Japan from Korea 552 A. D. The 
new faith encountered opposition and spread slowly, but 
the Korean missionaries were persistent. By 684 a cabinet 
minister gave Buddhism distinction by building a chapel, 
appointmg two Korean priests to mmister in it, and encour- 
aging his daughter to become a nmi. After that Buddhism 
rapidly gained headway until it became the dominant re- 
Hgion of the countr}^ As in China, it did not prevail in a 
pure form, but was mingled with Confucian ancestor-wor- 
ship and with a variety of behefs and practices, many of 
them animistic, which made it a queer jumble of miscellane- 
ous odds and ends of rehgious behefs and customs. In 
reply to a question from a contributor, the editor of the 
Rinri Koenshu said: 'Present-day Buddhism in Japan is 
veiy complex, and it is difficult to say in a word what its 
characteristics are.'' ^ 

To the eye of a visitor Buddhism iq Japan appears strong. 
Temples are conspicuously in evidence. There are said to 
be 71,730 of them, and some are noble in proportions and 
elaborate in ceremonies. Fifty-three thousand two hundred 
and sLxty-eight priests are connected with these temples. 
Many others are engaged in teaching, preaching, and other 
duties. Nuns are also numerous. The total number of 
priests and nuns is placed at 180,129 — a great establishment 
indeed. Statues of Buddha are innumerable — statues sit- 
ting and reclining, statues of wood and iron and stone and 
marble and bronze and alabaster, and of every conceivable 
size from tiny images that can be put in a vest pocket to 

1 July, 1916. 
328 



BUDDHISM AND SHINTOISM IN JAPAN 329 

the colossal figure at Kamakura, made in the year 1252, 
fifty feet in height; body of bronze and eyes of gold — 

" A statue solid-set 
And moulded in colossal calm." 

In the ^Mim religious Hght" of the larger temples these 
huge figures (one I saw was 145 feet long and overlaid with 
thin sheets of pure gold), look down upon the worshipper 
with a solenm, majestic impassiveness, a timeless, unmoved 
cahn which impresses even a Western traveller, and help him 
to understand in some measure the awe which these vast 
statues excite in the minds of the people. 

Nara, with its spacious park and venerable trees and pic- 
turesque temple and huge Buddha, so impressed Phillips 
Brooks that he wrote: "No one of all the world's sacred 
places has so stirred my soul as has Nara.^' 

But a religion is supposed to be a moral force. Is Budd- 
hism one? Whatever influence in purifying conduct it 
may ever have had finally ceased almost wholly. While 
it retained its temples and priests and external pomp, it 
became virtually dead from the view-point of vital faith and 
regenerative power. How widely modem Buddhism sepa- 
rates religion and conduct painfully appears in the attitude 
of its priests toward immorahty. There are imdoubtedly 
pure priests, and it would be grossly imjust to make an in- 
discriminate charge of impurit}^ against the whole class; 
but there are some stubborn facts that cannot be success- 
fully challenged. When, in 1916, Buddhist and Shinto 
leaders in Osaka were asked to co-operate in the effort to 
prevent the rebuilding of the vice district, which had been 
burned, they declined to do so, although some individual 
Japanese of these faiths gave hearty assistance. Indeed 
the head priest of a great Shinto shrine actually performed 
a ceremony of propitiation over the grounds of the proposed 
new prostitute quarters. I was credibly informed that it 
is not imcommon to open a new resort of vice with religious 
ceremonies conducted by Buddhist priests, and that priests 
often visit brothels to collect alms from the inmates. 



330 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

The neighborhood of many of the large temples reeks 
with brothels, which are so numerous and whose inmates 
are so openly aggressive in soliciting men who are on their 
way to and from the temples that it is impossible to doubt 
that such juxtaposition to places of worship impKes, if not 
direct connivance, at least absence of protest from the 
temple authorities, and a conception of religion which sees 
no incongruity between Buddhist observances and houses 
of prostitution. ''When the patriotic youth of new Japan, 
wishing to pay homage at the most fashionable shrines of 
Ise, are compelled to reach the spot by passing along a road 
lined on both sides with legalized brothels, it looks as if 
official encouragement to impurity was offered, or at least 
temptation was presented, to the rising generation." ^ 

One of the incidental but nevertheless interesting results 
of Christian missionary work in Japan is an attempt on the 
part of leading Buddhists to revive and purify their religion. 
This is partly due to the diffusion of the teachings of Chris- 
tianity, in whose light the Buddhist leaders see more clearly 
the decay and moral weakness of their own faith, and are 
led to go back to its original teachings and to bring into 
new prominence some of the ethical precepts of its founders. 
A stronger motive is self-defense, for Christianity's doctrines 
and the standards of conduct which it inculcates compel 
Buddhism to undertake radical reforms or to give up al- 
together. The Japanese mind has begun to be less indiffer- 
ent to religious questions, and signs of awakening and un- 
rest are multiplying. Would-be reformers have sprung up 
and are advocating all sorts of religious vagaries. Doctor 
Anezaki, professor in the Imperial University, commented 
in 1917 upon the significant fact that eight or ten new 
fanatical, superstitious movements were just budding out 
which had not been noticed by the pubHc press. 

Buddhist leaders became alarmed. They began to use 
the printing press, to distribute leaflets, and issue periodicals. 
They did not mince words in attempting to shame their 
people into activity. The first number of Jiyu Bukkyo, a 

^ Ernest W. Clement in A Handbook of Modern Japan, p. 167. 



BUDDHISM AND SHINTOISM IN JAPAN 331 

Buddhist magazine which appeared in Kobe in October, 
1916, frankly said in a leading editorial: "Buddhism is Kke 
a hotel near the railway but between stations. Once it was 
a famous hostelry, but the advent of the railway has left it 
stranded and the whole neighborhood suffers from neglect. 
Even should a w^ayfarer drop in he will find no comfort, 
for the place is not able to renew its furnishings and it has 
become worn out and obsolete. Just so is Japanese Bud- 
dhism — ^passed by and ignored by modem progress and un- 
able to afford spiritual refreshment. True, there are still 
some intellectuals, people Hke university professors, who 
profess Buddhism, but they are very few, the great majority 
of Buddhists being but blind followers of tradition. They 
do as their fathers did, being too ignorant to know what 
changes science has wrought in the world, while their tra- 
dition is so dead that it has no influence on their lives. '^ 

Buddhism in many lands has incoiporated the ideas of 
other faiths as a sponge absorbs water, and Japanese Bud- 
dhism is no exception. The methods of Christianity have 
been freely borrowed. 

Recognizing the advantage of Sunday-schools, a fund of 
a million yen ($500,000) was raised a few years ago to 
establish them, and within a recent period of six months 
over 800 were started, with an enrolment of 120,000 children. 
The regulations for Sunday-schools, promulgated in 1914, 
include the following: 

" Art. II. The aim of the Sunday-Schools is to cultivate the char- 
acter of the pupils according to the doctrine of our sect (Shinshiu). 

" Art. III. To attain the aim above mentioned, the Sunday-Schools 
should make some connection with the primary schools and the pupils' 
homes, and on Sunday give lessons on religion and morality. If 
local conditions allow, hand work and manners are to be taught besides. 

" Art. IV. There shall be a superintendent in each Sunday School, 
and the superior of a temple or a teacher only can take charge of it. 

"Art. VII. Every school should make an educational report twice 
a year. 

"Art. VIIL The expenses of the School shall be defrayed out of 
the contributions of the supporters and subscriptions to the local 
temple/' 



332 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

The extent of the copymg of Christian material is curiously 
illustrated in the songs that are provided for these Buddhist 
Sunday-schools. Some of them are taken almost bodily 
from the Christian hymn-book — words, tune, meter, and 
chorus, the only change being the substitution of the name 
Buddha for Jesus and the omission of an occasional stanza 
whose Christian meaning cannot be twisted to fit Buddhist 
teachings. It is odd to enter a Buddhist school and find, 
as one visitor did, a hmidred and fifty children lustily sing- 
ing: 

"Buddha loves me, this I know"; 

and to note that the organist is playing the tune from a 
Christian hymnal. If it be true that imitation is the sin- 
cerest form of flattery, missionaries have abundant reason 
to feel flattered. 

The Young Men's Christian Association has been made 
the model of the Young Men's Buddhist Association, which 
has grown rapidly in membership and influence. Professor 
Kaneka Umaji, of Waseda University, wrote: ^'I am very 
glad to see that the long wished-for Y. M. B. A. has come 
into being among the students of this university. The 
times needed it, and I am glad that you have taken up the 
task of finding a new Buddhism which shall march hand in 
hand with the progress of civiHzation. Ancient, divided, 
and often corrupt, the Buddhism we have known awaits 
your reforms to regain its influence. To me. Buddhism 
with its profound philosophy and its spiritual power over 
men and women is the best of all religions. Yet with sorrow 
I confess that it fails to serve the youth of to-day. It is a 
sun obscured in clouds. It has been left behind by a pro- 
gressive world. Not a few young men, having sought in 
vain, have desperately flung their hves away in a deep 
cataract pool or before a running train. Buddhism must 
therefore be reformed." ^ 

Buddhist Women's Associations have also been organ- 
ized. There are eight such associations in Tokyo, the old- 

1 Article in the Seinem Yuben, December, 1916. 



BUDDHISM AND SHINTOISM IN JAPAN 333 

est having been formed in 1886. A Buddhist Union rep- 
resents and co-ordinates some of the modern movements, 
and at the third general meeting of its central committee 
in May, 1917, one of the main subjects of discussion was 
"how to perfect the estabhshment of the Buddhist Pro- 
tective Association.'' 

The candor of the leaders of the new movement has gone 
further and compared Christian and Buddhist missionary 
work to the latter's disadvantage. Mokushoko Shonin 
plainly wrote as follows: 

"Christian missionaries go into the remotest parts of the earth to 
increase their converts, braving all dangers and discomforts. But 
what do the Buddhist priests of Japan ? Are men really alive who are 
content to exist upon the remuneration they receive for reading pray- 
ers they do not understand at funerals ? So mechanical is their per- 
formance that they make prayers at piece-work rates. They drink 
and dissipate, to pay for which they resort to ways of getting money 
from which even laymen shrink. There are black sheep doubtless in 
the Christian ministry, but in the bulk there is no comparison. Chris- 
tian workers constantly strike for the amelioration of social condi- 
tions — to rescue women, to educate the poor, to succor orphans, 
and the Buddhist priests loiter far in their rear. . . . Buddhist 
preachers appeal only to the old and uneducated whom they tell of 
the delights of paradise, but they have no message for this life. Their 
preaching places often remain closed for months at a time. While 
the Christians strive to save souls, the Buddhists flatter millionaires 
and magnates. There are 72,000 first-class Buddhist temples, 52,000 
chief priests, 148,000 preachers, 52,000 probationary priests, and 12,000 
students in Buddhist schools — an astonishing number of men to be 
doing nothing." ^ 

How far the reformers can succeed in galvanizing the 
moribund body of Buddhism into some kind of life remains 
to be seen. They are certainly trying hard. Realizing 
that only educated men can influence modern Japan and 
compete with the highly trained Christian leaders, they 
have founded colleges to whose graduates they can look 
for future leadership, and they are actively at work in many 
fields of effort. Special occasions are magnified in every 

1 Article in the Shin Nippon, October, 1916. 



334 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

possible way. The Shinshiu sect of Buddhists celebrated 
the six hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the death of its 
founder at Kyoto, in 1911, with elaborate ceremonies. 
Vast multitudes attended; but observers noted that they 
were almost wholly from the country towns and villages, 
and that there were very few young people. 

Among the activities of modern Japanese Buddhists is an 
effort to rehabilitate Buddhism in Korea, where, as we 
noted in a former chapter, it long since disappeared as a 
national faith, its only vestiges to-day being a few remote 
mountain monasteries, and here and there a ruined temple 
or a dirty priest slinking like an outcast in the outskirts of 
some town. A number of Japanese Buddhist propagan- 
dists were sent to Korea some years ago. Others followed, 
and the effort has been earnestly pressed. A Western Chris- 
tian's estimate of the tine character and the poor promise 
of the enterprise might not be deemed impartial. For- 
tunately, it is not necessary for me to appraise it, as this 
has been done by two Japanese newspapers whose freedom 
from bias is not likely to be challenged. The Japan Times 
says: ''It is extremely doubtful that the Buddhist religion, 
or at least the grossly unphilosophical and superstitious 
part of it which alone can be taught by average priests, 
will do any good to Koreans. Koreans as a whole are 
bom to all sorts and forms of superstition of their own, 
and it really seems a sin to burden them with more. But 
that is only by the way. We notice an opinion expressed 
now and then that Buddhistic propagation should be a 
part of the plan to assimilate Koreans. Call it a social 
plan, if you will, but its end is unmistakably political, and 
we strenuously object to such a scheme. . . . The case 
would be different if Buddhism, however degraded in its 
form now, had in any way been helpful in bringing about 
the modern civilization of Japan. But whatever preten- 
sions it may set forth in other directions, it certainly and 
absolutely has no claim to make in this particular respect, 
that is, in the work of the moral, intellectual and social 
elevation of new Japan. In Korea we are now to do the 



BUDDHISM AND SHINTOISM IN JAPAN 335 

same work over again, and it is most preposterous for 
Buddhist bonzes to come forward with their uncalled-for 
service and with the claim that they can and will do in 
Korea what they have not done, and never have even tried 
to do, in Japan. It is still more intolerable that any well 
meaning friends of Koreans should ask for the assistance 
of those worldly and narrow-viewed latter-day disciples of 
Buddha. There will be enough to worry about in Korea 
for some time to come, and the sending out there these 
bonzes can only make the situation worse. '^ 

The Seoul Press has this to say : ^'Having some knowledge 
of the present condition of Buddhism in Japan, we find it 
rather hard to entertain any great hope as to the future of 
the rehgion in this country. We believe few will contra- 
dict us when we say that Buddhism is on the wane. . . . 
The only time educated people repair to a Buddhist temple 
is when they attend the funeral or other religious service 
for some one dear to them. . . . Buddhism is dying in 
Japan, and scarcely holds its place as a religion in the minds 
of the Japanese younger men. It is not a power having 
great influence in the shaping of their moral character and 
spurring them to a higher, nobler and purer life. Inasmuch 
as Buddhism is in such a condition in Japan, it is reason- 
able, we think, to entertain some doubt as to the success of 
the proposed propaganda of the rehgion in this country. '^ 

Many Japanese are openly sceptical regarding the ability 
of Buddhism to adapt itself to modern conditions in either 
Korea or Japan. An editorial in the Kirisuto Kycho says 
that there is a general expectation that rehgion will be 
changed as a result of the war, and it asks: "Will Bud- 
dhism, the religion of Japan from ancient times, be able to 
undergo a change sufficient to enable it to lead the new 
Japan?'' The writer declares "that such a revival is 
scarcely within the range of possibility. Buddhism is abso- 
lutely opposed, as a religion, to the present life. Whatever 
efforts the Buddhists may put forth to meet the needs of 
the new times, their most important scriptural teachings 
contradict such efforts by their antagonism to the present 



336 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

life. On the other hand, if some sHght changes be made in 
the pohty of the churches (Christian), and if we cast off the 
teachings that smack of Europe and America, and give ex- 
pression to a purer teaching concerning Christ and God, 
then Christianity will be in position to exert a living leader- 
ship capable of satisfying the needs of the nation."^ 

Nevertheless, Mr. Nakashoji, Minister of Agriculture and 
Commerce, said in an address at a meeting of Buddhists: 
'*I feel regret on accoimt of the evils that lead the nation 
to devote itself to the almighty dollar. With the coming in 
of new ideas disorder has arisen here and there. ... At 
this time, the Buddhist religious leaders are going to do 
their utmost in order to destroy such evil tendencies." ^ 

Every open-minded Christian will applaud such a pur- 
pose. If Buddhism is to exist at all, and it imdoubtedly 
is for some time yet, it is better to have it clean than un- 
clean, a friend rather than a foe of morality. Nothing could 
be worse than to have some of the religious guides of a 
deeply-rooted national faith reeking with impurity, as man}^ 
Buddhist priests notoriously are, and others, although not 
personally vile, yet apparently seeing no wrong in immorality 
and making no protest against it. In so far as the reform 
movement leads earnest souls to remain in the faith of their 
fathers rather than to foUow Christ, it will indeed do harm. 
Some Japanese are now being influenced to do this who 
otherwise would have renounced Buddhism. This is not 
a light danger, since it encourages men to imagine that they 
can appropriate the social results of Christianity without 
the deeper truths and obhgations from which the results 
flow. A Chiistless morality may again illustrate the apho- 
rism that the good is the enemy of the best. 

On the other hand, reformed Buddhism is so manifestly 
a half-way house, so evidently an imitation of Christianity, 
and the road beyond it is so clear and straight, that thought- 
ful Japanese who really desire a virile religion of trans- 
forming power are not likely to be content with such a 

^ Quoted in The Japan Evangelist, July, 1917. 
2 Tr. The Japan Evangelist, June, 1917. 



BUDDHISM AND SHINTOISM IN JAPAN 337 

weak compromise as " revived '^ Buddhism offers. It has 
no roots, if I may change the figure, and is merely attempt- 
ing to tie the fruits of Christianity to the withered branches 
of a dead tree. Marquis Okuma may be assimied to know, 
and he has frankly said: ^'To be sure, Japan had her re- 
hgions and Buddhism prospered greatly; but this pros- 
perity was largely through political means. Now this 
creed has been practically rejected by the better classes, 
who, being spiritually thirsty, have nothing to drink. '^^ 

The other great national faith of Japan is Shintoism. Is 
it a religion? No one ever thought of arguing that it is 
not until the Christians in Japan objected to the obser- 
vances of Shinto rites on the ground that they are incompati- 
ble with Christianity. Then the argument became general, 
Shinto advocates declaring that its ceremonies are to be re- 
garded as patriotic and social rather than religious, and that 
every loyal Japanese could observe them without disloyalty 
to his religious convictions. Finally, t*he government took 
a hand in the discussion by officially distinguishing between 
state Shintoism and rehgious Shintoism, and it divided the 
Bureau of Shrines and Temples into the Bureau of Shrines 
and the Bureau of ReHgions, thus taking Shintoism out of 
the category of religion and putting it into the category of 
state institutions. Thereafter, ceremonies at the shrines 
were under the supervision of government officials. 

This, however, did not end the discussion. Historically, 
the Japanese have for centuries regarded Shinto "as the 
way of the gods.'^ The general Christian view has been 
admirably stated by the Right Reverend J. G. Combaz, 
Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church at Nagasaki, in an 
article in which he gives full and sympathetic recognition 
to the intentions of the government in regard to Shinto as 
simply a form of patriotic and social observance; but he 
declares that "nevertheless, however generous our frame 
of mind may be with regard to this view of the shrines, we 
cannot give our support to it.^' And he assigns the follow- 
ing reasons: "For several thousand years the officials and 

1 Address, October 9, 1909. 



338 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

the people alike have looked upon them as sanctuaries and 
places of worship and as institutions founded upon the 
supernatural. This being so, how can the nature of shrines 
be changed by a single government edict? One may 
change the label on a bottle, but the contents will not be 
changed thereby. In the official edict it is said that shrines 
are dedicated to the worship of the gods of the Empire for 
the public observance of festivals and for public worship. 
The use of the term 'worship' is sufficient evidence of the 
religious nature of the performance. It is also officially said 
that the object of the shrines is to pay respect to gods who 
have rendered meritorious service to the State, to the Im- 
perial House and to ancestors. Is not such reverence of a 
rehgious nature? . . . The rites observed at shrines are 
in accordance with the rules of the book of ceremonies. . . . 
From their very nature they must be deemed a form of 
religious observance. The fact that government officials, 
and not Shinto priests, conduct the ceremonies does not 
deprive them of their religious nature. In the ancient 
Roman Empire also, officials took charge of such shrines. 
But this was done in order to render the rites more im- 
pressive to the popular mind and to give dignity to their 
observance. When the officials performed the rites, they 
did precisely what the priests were accustomed to do and 
were, in fact, assisted by the priests. The shrines, therefore, 
could not be devoid of religious character."^ 

This view finds ample support in the opinions of men 
who cannot be charged with religious bias. That keen 
analyst of Japanese life and character, Lafcadio Hearn, 
wrote: ''Stated in the simplest possible form, the peculiar 
element of truth in Shinto is the belief that the world of the 
living is directly governed by the world of the dead. That 
every impulse or act of man is the work of a god, and that 
all the dead become gods are the basic ideas of the cult."^ 

That high Japanese authority, Professor T. Inouye, 

» Article in the KirisutokyohOy March 28, 1918; translated in The Japan 
Evangelist, May, 1918. 
2 Kokoro, pp. 21 and 200. 



BUDDHISM AND SHINTOISM IN JAPAN 339 

says: ^^ Shrines are the vehicles which give expression to the 
Shinto spirit and our religious institutions. The religious 
rites practised in connection with them are the hairi, saikei, 
and kito — worship, ceremonies and prayer. These all alike 
are religious ceremonials. It is clearly a mistake to put 
the shrines outside the category of religion." Professor K. 
Kakehi expresses a like opinion. ^'Reverence for shrines/' 
he sayS; ^'is religious in nature, and the view that reverence 
paid to them is not religious is meaningless. It is a high 
form of rehgion even from the scientific point of view." 
Significance, too, must be given to the fact that when, in 
1912, the Vice-Minister of Home Affairs called a con- 
ference of the rehgious leaders of the Empire, to be de- 
scribed in a later chapter, he invited representatives of 
Shintoism as well as of Buddhism and Christianity; and 
that in his pubHc statement regarding the conference he 
used these words: ^SShintoism, Buddhism and Christianity 
are all religions. . . . Shintoism and Buddhism have long 
had a recognized place as religions of the Japanese people." 

We cordially concur, and we beheve with all Protestant 
missionaries and Japanese Christians, in the statement of 
Bishop Combaz that "as long as the Japanese stand firm 
on their historic past, no one can find fault with them, much 
less can any one expect them to be disloyal to their own 
country. But we deeply regret that the Japanese still 
retain a mythology long ago given up by other countries 
as being unreasonable and imtrustworthy ; and not only 
so, but with a certain coercion this mythology is required to 
be recognized." 

Meantime, Shintoism is a waxing power rather than, hke 
Buddhism, a waning one. In 1912 the number of Shinto 
shrines was 127,076, but the latest available figures place 
the number at 137,184. Fourteen thousand five himdred 
and twenty-seven Shinto priests are connected with them, 
and the total number of preachers and teachers of religious 
Shinto is given as 74,619. It is interesting to note that the 
increase of national prosperity and power resulting from 
the world war is redounding to the benefit of Shintoism as 



340 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

well as to that of commercial and political influence. A 
prominent Japanese has recently said: ''The present war 
has led some of us to agnosticism or national Shintoism. 
Shintoism has made great progress at the expense of Chris- 
tianity by the support of our Imperial Court and the 
government, and the Ise Shrine and influential professors 
in the Imperial University. National spirit combined with 
the faith of old Shintoism has risen in power, and is attract- 
ing the attention of intelhgent Japanese young men. This 
phenomenon can not be ignored by those who care about 
the spiritual welfare of our people." 

From all of which it appears that Shintoism is likely to 
remain a force to be reckoned with for some time to come. 



CHAPTER XXII 
CHARACTER OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 

From the view-point of international law and diplomatic 
intercourse this question primarily relates to Japan's treat- 
ment of her own subjects; but it may be said of nations, 
as of individuals, that '^none of us liveth to himself.'' The 
world has passed the stage in which any government is re- 
garded as morally free to do as it pleases with a subject 
people without regard to the public opinion of mankind. 
America's treatment of the Indians, Negroes, Chinese, and 
Japanese in the United States and of the Hawaiians and 
Filipinos in their Pacific archipelagos, and British, French, 
Belgian, and German treatment of their subject populations 
in Asia and Africa, are universally recognized as fair sub- 
jects of discussion. While Korea is a national possession 
of the Japanese, their policy in dealing with it is of inter- 
national concern. That they themselves recognize this is 
proved by the Government-General's annual publication in 
English of a thick pamphlet entitled Reforms and Progress 
in Korea, which gives a detailed account of what is being 
done. 

We should frankly recognize at the outset that the Japa- 
nese were handicapped in Korea, not only by the chaotic 
conditions that prevailed, but by the fact that if domination 
by some foreign power was inevitable, the Koreans would 
have been better pleased if that power had been some other 
than Japan. The two nations had been hereditary enemies 
for a thousand years. Japanese invasions had been numer- 
ous, and the one in 1592 had wrought such devastation 
that Korea has been a wretched and dilapidated country 
ever since. After his observant journey through the Far 
East, Lord Curzon wrote: '^The national race hatred be- 
tween the Koreans and Japanese was, and is, one of the most 

341 



342 THE ]\IASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

striking phenomena in contemporar}^ Korea." ^ The suf- 
ferings of the people were severe during the China-Japan 
War of 1894, and the Russia-Japan War of 1905; and as 
the Japanese were the victors in both wars, they were natu- 
rally held responsible for the resultant distress. During 
these wars, and for years after them, the Japanese were not 
conciliatory in their dealings with the Koreans. They had 
long regarded them as inferiors, and had never taken the 
pains that the Russians took to cajole them, to keep their 
Emperor supplied with money, and to cultivate popular 
good- will. They managed the Koreans with the brusque- 
ness of the Anglo-Saxon rather than with the suavity of 
the Oriental, ignored ^^face," which every Korean sensi- 
tively cherishes, and in general dealt with the Koreans 
about as Americans dealt with the North American In- 
dians, and the British with their subject populations in 
India and Africa, always preserving the attitude of superiors 
even when acting justly. 

Unfortunately, too, the first Japanese who came to Korea 
after the Russia-Japan War were soldiers and camp-follow- 
ers. The army necessarily occupied the country during 
the war, and for some time after its close. Military rule is 
strict everywhere. It must be in the more or less lawless 
conditions which follow a war; but it is none the less gaUing 
to civilians. We know how Filipinos and Americans alike 
chafed under the rule of the United States army in the 
Philippines, notwithstanding the fact that the American 
commanders were men of the highest rectitude of intention. 
The Japanese soldiers in Korea were those who had fought 
in the campaigns against Russia. They regarded Korea 
as the prize of the war, and in spite of Japanese discipline 
they had something of that spirit of exhilaration and law- 
lessness which usually characterizes soldiers after a victori- 
ous campaign. White men who remember the conduct of 
the foreign troops in Peking after the raising of the siege 
of the legations in 1900 will not be surprised at the attitude 
of Japanese troops in Korea. During the period of military 

1 Problems of the Far East, pp. 194-195. 



CHARACTER OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 343 

occupation there were undoubtedly many cases of brutality, 
and the enterprises which were necessary to strengthen 
Japanese occupation were carried out with scant regard for 
the feelings of the people. 

The civilian immigrants who poured into Korea after the 
war were not the best type of Japanese. Americans know 
the breed — the lawless characters in the frontier mining- 
camps of a generation ago, who did their ruthless pleasure 
in Alaska and became the carpet-baggers of the Southern 
States after the Civil War. Our usually good-natured Mr. 
Taft characterized the dissolute and brutal Americans whom 
he found in the PhiHppines, when he became Governor- 
General, with a sharpness of invective which made them his 
bitter enemies. He declared that they were the worst 
obstacle to Americans purpose to deal justly with the FiH- 
pinos. The same class of Japanese hurried to Korea, and 
they rode rough-shod over the helpless natives, appropriating 
food, seizing farm-animals, taking possession of land, mal- 
treating women, and, in some instances when opposed, 
burning houses and even villages. 

The Nagamori land scheme aroused wide-spread alarm. 
Nagamori was a speculator who, backed by the Secretary 
of the Japanese Legation (the Minister, Mr. Hayashi, was 
then absent in Japan), induced the weak Korean Emperor 
to grant him an exclusive concession for a period of fifty 
years to reclaim, improve, and cultivate forests, fields and 
waste lands, exclusive of the grounds of imperial mausolea, 
temple-grounds, preserved forests, government and private 
lands already reclaimed. This practically turned over the 
larger part of the country to this daring speculator. As 
soon as the meaning of the concession became clear, a storm 
of protest broke forth. We caimot believe that a man like 
Mr. Hayashi would have countenanced such a bare-faced 
land-grab. The Tokyo authorities, with whom he was at 
the time, disavowed the whole scheme and compelled the 
ingenious promoter to relinquish it. But the memory 
rankled in the minds of the Koreans, who believed that it 
was a sample of what they might expect from the rapacity 



344 THE ]MASTJ^:ilY OF THE FAR EAST 

of their conquerors whenever too much pubHcity was not 
involved. 

The course of the Japanese was usually more exemplaiy 
in regions where officers of high rank were resident, and 
where foreigners had opportunity to notice what was being 
done. Officials of lower grade in places remote from the 
capital were not always so considerate. Inferior men, far 
from the observation of their superiors, were able to indulge 
their temper or prejudices with little fear of consequences. 
Doubtless some of the stories of injustice are susceptible 
of explanation; but the reports are too numerous and ex- 
plicit to be dismissed as altogether baseless. We know 
what white men have sometimes done when placed in abso- 
lute control of a helpless people, and it is not surpiising 
that some Japanese have showed the same traits in like cir- 
cumstances. Some of the documents of this period, in my 
possession, are not pleasant reading. Shortly after Vis- 
count Terauchi became Resident-General, in 1910, he 
frankly admitted that there was some foundation for com- 
plaints, and he as frankly deplored them, for in that year 
the Japan Times gave the following accoxmt of an interview 
by the Seoul representative of a Tokyo news agency: ^^The 
Resident-General says he greatly regrets to find that the 
Japanese residents in Korea are sometimes inclined to 
despise and oppress the Korean people. Koreans have, 
therefore, a tendency to bear a grudge against the Japanese. 
. . . The Resident-General is afraid that such acts may 
not be isolated, and thus contribute to the injury of the re- 
lations between Japanese and Koreans in general. '^ 

Conditions improved, but the revelations in connection 
with the "Korean Conspiracy Case'^ showed that in 1911 
and 1912 Korea was swarming with suspicious secret police 
and ruthless gendarmes, and that the lower courts were 
under police control. It is not easy for the outside world 
to get an accurate idea of the real situation, for the censor- 
ship limits the publication of unfavorable opinions in Korea, 
and foreigners sometimes find it prudent to be careful 
about what they intrust to the mails. The officially influ- 



CHARACTER OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 345 

enced press gives the most glowing accounts of contentment 
and prosperity. Japanese in Japan have frankly admitted 
that Korea is not an Arcadia of delights, and they have 
criticised with a freedom that would hardly have been per- 
mitted in Korea. Witness the following from the Shin 
Nippon: ^^The Governor-Generars desire is to make the 
perdnsula one big fortress, and he seems to regard all those 
engaged in industrial or commercial work in Korea as mere 
camp followers within the walls of a barracks." ^ 

The Reverend George Shigetsugu Murata wrote an article 
in The Oriental Review for October, 1912, in which, after 
making some criticisms upon the missionaries and Korean 
Christians, he frankly said: ^'It is not only Koreans who 
make mistakes. When I v/as in Korea, a company of 
Japanese soldiers burnt down a Christian church from a 
mere fit of passion. On another occasion, a party of sol- 
diers entered a church during a prayer-meeting and de- 
manded lodging. When asked to wait till the end of the 
service, they drove out the congregation at the end of 
bayonets, and occupied the church for the night. A drunken 
soldier forced his way into the house of Doctor W. A. Noble, 
a missionary friend of mine, without the slightest reason 
for so doing. These acts caused just criticism against the 
Japanese officials." 

The Chu Koron published an article by Doctor Yoshino, 
who was referred to as a university professor, giving his 
impressions of a visit to Korea in 1916. After enumerating 
the great material im.provements that had been made, he 
wrote: '^The above, however, is merely the surface condi- 
tion of things. It is impossible for mere casual visitors to 
know whether or not there are dead men^s bones under the 
whited sepulchres. The Japanese authorities declare that 
peace is enjoyed all over the countr}^ There is no doubt 
whatever about that, but it is nothing but the dull peace of 
serfdom. . . . Without consideration and mercilessly they 
[the authorities] have resorted to laws for the expropriation 
of lands, the Koreans concerned being compelled to part 

* Translation in the China Press, June 21, 1912. 



346 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

with their family property aknost for nothing. On many 
occasions they have been also forced to work on the con- 
struction of the roads without receiving any wages. . . . 
As far as the law is concerned, Koreans and Japanese are 
on precisely the same footing. This is the theoiy, but the 
fact is not exactly the same. . . . They [Koreans] are 
discriminated against both officially and privately. . . . 
Business men in Korea are fully acquainted with the ex- 
istence of this evil, but can say nothing against it, the free- 
dom of speech being severely restricted. It must be re- 
membered that papers and magazines published in Japan 
are not allowed to enter Korea if they contain articles 
criticising Japanese official methods in the peninsula." ^ 

This is plain speaking, and it cannot be charged to for- 
eign prejudice since it comes from a Japanese. It is quite 
safe to assume that the article was not permitted to enter 
Korea. Since then a foreign resident of Korea has written : 
^^ We are now living in the age of permits. We have to have 
permits for everything from killing a wild goose or estab- 
lishing a new church, hiring or dismissing a teacher or 
preacher, to forty other things. If a guest comes and stays 
more than a few days, we have to report him to the police 
and repeat ihe operation when he leaves. It takes a good 
deal of time running to the police office for permits and to 
make reports. The German system of espionage is quite 
well established here now. It is pretty galling on the nerves 
of one who has been brought up in a country where police- 
men mind their own business, and one does not know of 
the existence of a government till one becomes a male- 
factor or has to pay taxes.'' 

Whatever may be said in defense of stem measures as a 
political and military necessity in dealing with the pecuHar 
conditions in Korea, there remains a wide difference of 
opinion regarding the general course of the Japanese. The 
justice of their methods in dealing with the Koreans is a 
hotly disputed question. The pro- Japanese view is vigor- 
ously presented by Professor George T. Ladd in a volume 

* Translation in the Japan Weekly Chronicle, July 13, 1916. 



CHARACTER OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 347 

entitled With Marquis I to in Korea, and the anti- Japanese 
view is presented with equal vigor in Professor Homer B. 
Hulbert's The Passing of Korea. Professor Ladd, who went 
to Korea on the cordial invitation of Prince Ito, and whose 
visit was ^'personally conducted'^ by the Japanese, exhausts 
his vocabulary in pouring out his contempt upon the Ko- 
reans, who manifested only languid interest in his efforts 
to convince them in a series of lectures what great and good 
people their Japanese rulers were. Professor Hulbert^s 
point of view is that of deep sympathy with the Koreans, 
among whom he lived for many years and whom he regards 
as a grossly wronged people, while his opinion of the Japa- 
nese, sharpened by some personal experiences, he makes 
"as emphatic as the rules of the House will permit," if I 
may borrow a phrase of Gladstone's in the British Parlia- 
ment. 

Both writers, in my humble opinion, are right in some 
things and wrong in others, for both are partisans. Un- 
doubtedly the conduct of the Japanese has been character- 
ized by both good and evil, and it is not well to concentrate 
attention upon either to the exclusion of the other. The 
judicious man will seek a balanced judgment between the 
two extremes.^ To this end I hope that the reader who has 
gone with me thus far will not fail to read my following 
account of other and better phases of Japanese rule in 
Korea, which are quite as essential to a fair judgment. 

And first, we should bear in mind considerations that 
have been mentioned before, and that will bear repetition 
as fundamental factors in the situation, namely: that the 
Japanese justification for taking Korea lay in the inescapa- 
ble facts that, if Japan had not occupied the peninsula, 
Russia would have done so; that Japan's national safety 
would have been imperilled by Russian occupation; that 
Japanese ascendancy was far better for the Koreans than 

^ Cf. for additional facts, George Kennan, article in The Outlook, November 
11, 1905; William T. Ellis, article in The North American Review, October, 
1907; F. A. McKenzie, The Tragedy of Korea, pp. lOS seq., and The Unveiled 
East, pp. 33-95; Thomas F. Millard, The New Far East, pp. 80-123; B. L. 
Putnam Weale, The Truce in the Far East and Its Aftermath, pp. 40-108. 



348 'JTIE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Russian ascendancy would have been; that the Korean 
Government was so hopelessly rotten and the condition of 
the countiy so pitiable that there was no possibiHty of 
poHtical regeneration from within; and that the interests 
both of Koreans and of the other peoples concerned made 
it imperative that Japan should undertake the work of 
reconstruction. It was an extraordinarily difficult task. 
Gross abuses existed — a veritable sink of misgovemment, 
corruption, filth, and miser}^ As the Japanese are not 
angels but fallible human beings, it is not surprising that 
the best of them have made mistakes, and that the worst 
have committed crimes. It was equally inevitable that 
some of the best of the Koreans should feel their national 
pride wounded by the domination of an ahen government; 
that corrupt officials and indolent peasants should resent 
the reforms that had to be forced upon them; that some 
misguided men should resort to violent methods against 
their new rulers; and that subordinate officials should not 
always be considerate and humane in carrying out their 
task. 

Some Koreans manifested their resentment against the 
Japanese in ways that made the government feel that stem 
measures were required. While the so-caUed '^Korean 
Conspiracy Case'^ was largely a product of excited police 
imagination and officiousness, there were other cases of a 
more substantial character. Patriotic groups were formed 
in various parts of the country. Their slogans were: 
"Korea for the Koreans;'^ "It is better to die than to be 
slaves." One of the most formidable of these groups was 
the II Chin Hoi, which was formed in Seoul in 1904. Chris- 
tians were prominent among its foimders and the first 
meetings were opened with prayer. No unlawful acts were 
contemplated and no secrecy was attempted. Members 
were exhorted not to use force but to rely upon moral sua- 
sion, and a well-known Christian evangelist was appointed 
to inform the government of the organization of the society, 
and of its peaceful patriotic purpose along four lines: 
1. More firmly to establish and strengthen the present 



CHARACTER OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 349 

dynasty; 2. restrain the nobility in their office-bearing, 
assist all good movements and resist all evil ones; 3. pro- 
tect the common people's property and persons from nobles 
and every one else; and, 4. regulate the Korean soldiers of 
whom there were 20,000 at that time, some of them quite 
unruly, especially in the country districts. The member- 
ship of the society rapidly increased until there was a verita- 
ble scramble to join. The good objects and peaceful 
methods of the society were soon obscured. Meetings be- 
came turbulent, and violent measures were advocated. 
Non-Christians gained control and the Christian members 
dropped out till all semblance of the original character of 
the society was lost, and it became a menace to the country. 

Another patriotic society was called Chung Yun Hoi. 
Unfortimately this was the name by which the Young 
Men's Christian Association is known in China and Japan, 
and it was also the name of the yoimg people's societies in 
some of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches. The 
astute leaders of the political Chung Yun Hoi quickly took 
advantage of this identity of names. New members flocked 
into the Y. M. C. A. and the local church societies, and 
branches were formed in hundreds of outlying towns. Be- 
fore the significance of the movement was fully reahzed, 
the society had made such progress that it had nearly cap- 
tured the Y. M. C. A. and many of the Ep worth Leagues of 
the Methodist churches. 

The Wipyung Society (Righteous Army) was started in 
1907 and spread Hke wild-fire. Its leaders, too, saw the gain 
that would accrue to them if they could utiHze the Chris- 
tian churches, as these churches were the largest and 
strongest organizations among the Koreans. 

These societies gained such headwa}^ among Christians 
that it looked for a time as if the whole Christian enter- 
prise in Korea would be irreparably damaged by becoming 
the tool of a pohtical party whose object was not spiritual 
religion, but a revolutionary propaganda against the gov- 
ernment. When the missionaries saw what was being done 
under cover of Christianity, they took decisive measures. 



350 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

The Presbyterians warned their churches against the soci- 
eties, dismissed evangeHsts and teachers who were active 
in them, and sharply disciplined members whose activities 
were more poHtical than reUgious. '^Our Mission/' wrote 
a missionary, "set ourselves rigidly against it [the Wipyung 
Society], and we have held our church and almost to a man 
our members from going into it. When the movement 
struck Pyengyang it was in full swing, and would have 
swept the entire population in if it had not been for the 
Christians of our Mission. Pastor Kil called all the people 
together and pleaded with them not to go out, and he held 
them firm, and then the Christians went out two by two 
throughout the city urging their friends as individuals to 
be quiet. They stopped the movement in Pyengyang, and 
it was stopped all over those two provinces in the same 
way." The Y. M. C. A. secretaries and Board of Directors 
also took energetic steps to restore their organization to 
its proper character and to cut off poHtical affiliations, and 
the Methodists put the pseudo-religious society out of their 
churches and forbade the Korean Christian leaders to have 
anything to do with it under pain of expulsion. 

These drastic measures prevented the Christian move- 
ment from degenerating into a more anti-Japanese propa- 
ganda; but the revolutionists continued their activities 
under other forms and a variety of names. All pretense of 
reHgion was thrown off. Bands of desperate men began 
to roam about the country, and their mountain retreats 
became caves of Adullam, to which lawless and vicious 
characters resorted. Disbanded Korean soldiers joined 
them and a guerrilla warfare ensued. Attacks were made 
not only upon Japanese but upon Koreans who were sus- 
pected of sympathy with them. These suspicions were 
easily made the excuse for paying off old scores against 
personal enemies, and for pillaging houses that were be- 
lieved to contain money. Robberies and murders were 
frequent occurrences. The "Righteous Army'' now in- 
cluded in its vindictive hatred the members of the II Chin 
Hoi in Seoul, who were charged with being too friendly 



CHARACTER OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 351 

with the Japanese. ^^They wear their hair short/' wrote 
the Reverend Doctor James S. Gale, of Seoul, ''but so do the 
disbanded soldiers, and so do the Christians; so when the 
Righteous Army men capture a short-haired passer, they 
do not know whether he is a soldier or a Christian or an 
II Chin Hoi man. If he says he is a soldier they press him 
into service. If he says he is a Christian they ask him to 
repeat the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments. If 
he does this successfully: they say: 'Yes, you are a Chris- 
tian, go in peace.' But if he fails they say: 'He is an II 
Chin Hoi man, take him out and shoot him.' " 

The blindly furious agitators made no distinction be- 
tween friendly and unfriendly Japanese. If there was any 
man who deserved the good-will of the Koreans it was the 
humane and enhghtened Prince Hirobumi Ito, who had 
become the first civil Resident-General of Korea in 1906, 
and whose administration was distinguished by many of 
the reforms to which I shall presently refer in some detail. 
But October 26, 1909, a Korean fanatic named Inchan 
Angan assassinated him during a visit to Harbin, whither 
he had gone to confer with representatives of the Russian 
Government regarding Manchurian matters. "I am a 
Korean," proudly said the assassin when questioned, "and 
am very happy to have fulfilled my duty for my country 
and to have avenged my people and also the public dis- 
honor of unfortimate Korea." This outrage was followed 
by repeated efforts to kill other officials, including four 
attacks in 1907 upon Korean Cabinet Ministers who had 
accepted appointment by the Japanese. In March of the 
following year the Honorable Durham White Stevens, an 
American who was diplomatic adviser to the Department 
of Foreign Affairs in Prince Ito's administration in Seoul, 
was fatally shot by a Korean shortly after his arrival in 
San Francisco, his offense having been the assistance that 
he had given to the Japanese, and an interview published 
in the San Francisco papers defending their course in Korea. 

A recent author, in his eagerness to defend everything 
that the Japanese have done, refers to the Koreans as "sea- 



352 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

thieves'^ and "semi-pirates/' whose conversion into peace- 
ful citizens '^ requires as much skill and firmness as to 
domesticate savages. '^ He declares that "gentle methods, 
kindness and diplomacy have been tried in both instances, 
[Korea and Formosa] only to be requited by assassination, 
violence and brutality. Then what the Japanese ingeniously 
call a 'stronger pressure' has been brought to bear, and it 
would be folly to deny that hard blows have been dealt 
aHke to those who would despoil and assassinate. But 
when all milder measures fail, there remains but one method 
of dealing with armed insurgents and bloodthirsty savages, 
and that is to shoot them." 

Fair-minded Japanese will hardly relish that kind of a 
defense. A writer who does not have a juster compre- 
hension of the situation than such words indicate should 
be followed with caution. There are thieving and brutal 
Koreans just as there are thieving and brutal Japanese, 
Americans, and EngHshmen; but men of that type are no 
more common in Korea than in other lands. I have trav- 
elled through many parts of Korea without losing a penny's 
worth of goods or witnessing a single act of violence. I 
have seen more savagery in Glasgow and Chicago in a 
single day than I saw in Korea in two months. 

Every right-minded person must sjTnpathize with the 
grief and despair of the better class of Koreans. Wretched 
as Korea was, it was nevertheless their native land. They 
had apparently cared little for it as long as they had it to 
themselves; but when an alien conqueror appeared, the 
patriotic spirit which had burned low suddenly flamed up. 
They might have adapted the w^ords of Daniel Webster in 
his famous address to the jury in the case of Dartmouth 
College a century ago: "It is a poor little country, but 
there are those who love it." 

But love is not always wise, and a misguided patriot 
may be his country's w^orst enemy. Hot-headed youths 
added to the clamor. Shortly after the arrival of Count 
Terauchi, a foreigner in Korea wrote me about "a marked 
evidence of severity in the government's handling of the 



CHARACTER OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 353 

situation now that did not exist with Prince Ito/' but he 
added: "Since you were here, I realize more and more that 
the young men in schools are the most radically anti- 
government natives that one sees. They are ungoverna- 
ble to a very large degree; want to dictate to directors, 
principals, superiors. King, cabinet and eveiybod}^ The 
same storj^ seems true of China, India, Syria, and Egypt. 
Sometimes when the obstinacy and pride of these young 
fellows rise up to block church and school and evei^^hing 
else that one holds dear, I begin to think that the time may 
come when the government will have to hamimer these 
bo3^s into law-abiding shape." This was probably the way 
the officials felt. They could not tolerate disorders and 
revolutionary acts, however patriotically mtended. In 
adopting stem measures they may not have chosen the 
wisest course, but they did what all governments are quite 
apt to do in such circumstances. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

BENEFITS OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 

The establishment of civil rule by Prince Ito in 1906 in- 
augurated a better era than the unhappy one that followed 
the Russia-Japan War. He was in many respects a re- 
markable man. As a youth he was eager to learn of the 
outside world. It was not easy at that time to get per- 
mission to leave the country, but at the age of seventeen 
(1858) he and a friend; who afterward became the famous 
Comit K. InouyC; secretly escaped to a British vessel that 
was about to sail for England. They persuaded the cap- 
tain to permit them to work their passage, and they arrived 
in London friendless and, save for four shillings, penniless. 
Their presence became known to Mr. Hugh Matheson, a 
Christian merchant who was deeply interested in foreign 
missions, and who afterward became convener of the For- 
eign Missionary Society of the English Presbyterian Church. 
He generously took the two young men into his own home, 
where they remained for two years. When they returned 
to their native land conditions had begun to change, and, 
although they were at first regarded with suspicion, their 
intelligence and knowledge of European methods ere long 
made them useful to the government. When the allied 
fleet captured Shimonoseki in 1864, the Japanese authorities 
called upon Ito and Inouye to confer with the victors re- 
garding terms. They discharged this delicate duty with 
such skill and discretion that they won high favor. After 
that their rise was rapid. The list of positions that Ito was 
called upon to fill at various times during his subsequent 
career is a striking one: Governor of Hyogo, member of 
special embassy to Europe to revise treaties, organizer of 
Japanese banking regulations, Minister of Works in the 
Imperial Cabinet, framer of the new Constitution, first 

354 



BENEFITS OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 355 

President of the House of PeerS; negotiator of the treaties 
of Tien-tsin and Shimonoseki with China^ President of the 
Privy Council; representative of Japan at the Diamond 
Jubilee of Queen Victoria, and five times Prime Minister. 
No other Japanese bulks so large in the period of transition 
from feudal to modern Japan, and no other had so influential 
a part in shaping the national policy in that era of recon- 
struction. 

It was this man, the foremost statesman of the empire, 
that at the height of his fame came to Korea in 1906 as the 
first Resident-General. I do not agree with those who 
reviled him as the arch-enemy of Korea. Granting that 
some of his methods were of dubious character, and that 
his private morals were criticised even in his own country, 
where laxity is common, the fact remains that he was one 
of the very wisest and most progressive of the pubHc men 
of Japan, and that he had large and considerate views of 
the Koreans and of the duty of his country to them. If 
Korea was to be ruled by Japan at aU, its friends could not 
have suggested a better Japanese as Resident-General than 
Prince Ito. I found a general opinion, not only among 
Japanese but among missionaries and other foreigners with 
whom I talked, that he was a firm and just administrator 
who earnestly tried to better conditions. He had the 
statesmanship to see that, from the view-point of Japan 
herself, it was expedient to deal justly with a subject peo- 
ple. During his incumbency of three years he placed a 
higher class of men in public office, enacted wholesome laws, 
made roads, built railways, encouraged education, reor- 
ganized the courts, systematized the revenues, promoted 
agriculture and fisheries, took vigorous measures to sup- 
press the bands of brigands who infested the country dis- 
tricts, and promoted other salutary reforms. Prominent 
among these was the placing of the currency of the countr}^ 
on a gold basis. I have described in another chapter the 
financial chaos that had existed. Prince Ito called in the 
numerous coins of varying weight and purity, issued new 
coins of uniform value, imposed severe penalties for counter- 



35G THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

fciting; and inaugurated plans for a Bank of Korea, which 
was formally estabHshed July 27, 1909. 

One of his first acts was to deal sternly with the bmtal 
Japanese who had been guilty of the kind of maltreatment 
of the Koreans to which I have referred in a preceding chap- 
ter. Shortly after his assumption of office, in 1906, he 
caused a law to be enacted giving the Resident-General 
authority to take cognizance of any Japanese subjects 
ha\'ing no fixed abode or means of hvelihood, or guilty of 
using intemperate language, or resorting to extortion, 
usur}^, or cognate offenses. Many were fined and impris- 
oned, and one hundred and seven were deported during his 
term of office. 

I had a long conference with Prince Ito in Tokyo. I 
shall not attempt to give a full account of that conversa- 
tion. While it was private, he knew that I was seeking 
information for public use, and gave me fuU liberty to quote 
him. He spoke excellent English and discussed the whole 
question of Japanese plans in Korea with every appearance 
of candor. He freely admitted that mistakes had been 
made, and he lamented that many of the Japanese who at 
first went to Korea did some regrettable things; but he 
earnestly expressed his desire to make his countr^^'s rule a 
real benefit to a people who, he deeply felt, had never had 
a fair chance. The fanatic who assassinated him did the 
worst possible thing for Korea, for he murdered the most 
powerful friend that his countrymen had among the ruling 
Japanese. 

It is significant that the opponents of Prince Ito in 
Japan were of the party which favored a more drastic 
poKcy. This party felt that Korea was the absolute prop- 
erty of Japan, that its prompt "Japanization'' was a mili- 
tary necessity, and that its people were so hopelessly and 
contemptibly inferior and incorrigible that as little atten- 
tion should be paid to their alleged rights as the United 
States of half a century ago paid to the rights of the American 
Indians. Prince Ito, on the contrary, held that the Ko- 
reans were capable of development, and that it would not 



BENEFITS OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 357 

only be humane but to the advantage of Japan to treat 
them fairly. The revolutionar}^ cabal in Manchuria and 
California which planned and executed the foul murder of 
this enlightened statesman weakened their own case and 
strengthened the hands of their enemies, who now ex- 
claimed: '^What encouragement has any Japanese official 
to attempt to deal justly by the Koreans if he is in danger 
of being assassinated for his pains?'' Fortunately, intelli- 
gent Japanese know that the crime was that of a compara- 
tively small number of reactionaries. The majority of the 
people of Korea do not love their aHen rulers, but they 
are not disposed to shoot those who try to deal fairly by 
them. 

Viscount Sone, who succeeded Prince Ito in 1909, con- 
tinued the work along the lines laid down by his distin- 
guished predecessor until he w^as compelled by ill health to 
return to Japan, in the spring of 1910. Lieutenant-General 
Terauchi was then appointed to this responsible post. 
His policy is discussed in other chapters. But criticism of 
his stern militaristic rule and of the harsh police methods 
that he permitted, or at least acquiesced in, should not fail 
to do justice to his integrity, his patriotic purpose to do 
what he sincerely beheved to be for the best, his large ad- 
ministrative ability, and his vigor in carrying out and en- 
larging the plans for public improvements inaugurated by 
Prince Ito. Sanitary ordinances were promulgated and 
enforced. Water and sewerage systems were installed. 
Free hospitals and dispensaries were opened in the prin- 
cipal cities. Railways, telegraphs, and highways were ex- 
tended until the traveller can reach many parts of the 
country without floundering through the alternately muddy 
and dusty ruts that were euphemistically called paths. 

Railway construction began under the old Korean Gov- 
ernment, which was persuaded to grant a concession to an 
American company to build a line from Seoul to Chemulpo, 
19.4 miles. Work was begun in 1899, but the road was sold 
to a Japanese company before it was opened for traffic. 
This company began, in 1901, to build a railroad from Seoul 



358 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

to the southern port of Fusan^ a distance of 274.9 miles, 
which was completed in 1904 and formally opened January 
1, 1905. The year 1902 saw the beginning of the line from 
Seoul northward to Wiju, on the Yalu River, 309.7 miles. 
The work was started as an undertaking of the Korean 
Government through French engineers; but soon after the 
outbreak of the Russia-Japan War it was taken over by 
the Japanese, who made it a part of their trunk line running 
the entire length of the country from Fusan to Wiju, a 
distance of 584.6 miles. The lightly constructed narrow- 
gauge line from the Yalu River to Mukden was changed to 
a solidly ballasted broad-gauge, and the Yalu was spanned 
by a noble bridge, which was opened with elaborate cere- 
monies November 3, 1911, and through service estabHshed. 
One may now travel from Tokyo, Japan, to Fusan, Korea, 
in thirty-six hours, including the eight-hour ferry across 
Korea Strait; from Fusan to Seoul in eleven hours; from 
Seoul to Wiju in fourteen hours; and from Wiju to Mukden 
in nine hours; in other words, from Tokyo to Mukden in 
seventy hours. 

Of several branch lines that have since been built, the 
most important is the one from Seoul, one hundred and 
fifty miles northeastward to the port of Gensan. It did 
not offer such early commercial business as the main north- 
and-south lines, for while it traverses some fertile valleys 
it also crosses a mountainous and sparsely populated region. 
But its administrative and military importance is very 
great, and the Japanese were jubilant when the road was 
officially proclaimed open for traffic September 16, 1914. 

Over a thousand miles of railway are now in operation 
in Korea. All are owned by the government and have the 
standard gauge of four feet eight and a haK inches. About 
10,000 men are employed, of whom approximately three- 
fifths are Japanese and two-fifths Koreans. The equip- 
ment is modern, and the service reasonably good. It will 
be noted that, with the exception of the short line from 
Seoul to Chemulpo, all the railroad building in Korea has 
been done by the Japanese. Nor is this all, for they have 



BENEFITS OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 359 

made over fifteen hundred miles of graded highways, and 
are adding new ones every year. They are therefore en- 
titled to the full measure of credit for the inestimable ad- 
vantages which these improved facilities for travel and 
transportation have brought to Korea. 

Diligent efforts were also made to bring order out of chaos 
in land titles and boundaries. Surveys were made and 
submitted to local committees of investigation. If a Ko- 
rean who claimed ownership of a piece of property felt 
aggrieved by the decision of a committee, he could appeal 
to a higher committee composed of the Administrative 
Superintendent as chairman, three judges, and six officials 
of the Government-General and Land Investigation Bureau. 
It is true that the poor peasant was seldom able to invoke 
his legal rights effectively; but it is hard in any land for 
the best of laws to afford adequate protection to ignorant 
and penniless men who have neither the knowledge nor the 
money to make a contest in the courts. 

Afforestation is another great boon which the Japanese 
have brought to Korea. Milhons of young trees were set 
out on the bare hillsides, and April 3 was officially desig- 
nated as Arbor Day, on which the Koreans, and especially 
school children, were urged to set out trees, which the gov- 
ernment furnished. This was a most wise and enlightened 
measure to restore the fertility of the soil, check the ravages 
of floods, and provide the next generation with the fuel and 
lumber which the country now so sorely lacks. 

The far-sighted policy of the administration was also 
manifested in its intelligent recognition of the fact that the 
Koreans are chiefly an agricultural people, that their farm- 
ing operations were crude in the extreme, and that their 
prosperity and the resultant prosperity of the countrj^ would 
be enormously increased by teaching a better system. ^^In 
order to accompHsh this piupose,'^ wrote Governor-General 
Terauchi, ^'I planned the extension and creation of organs 
for encouraging agriculture and introducing improved agri- 
cultural methods. Besides the Model Agricultural Station 
at Suwon, the central organ, I caused the establishment of 



360 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

two branches, one at Taiku and the other at Pyengyang. 
For sericulture, another branch was estabHshed at Yongsan 
near Seoul; for cotton cultivation, one at Mokpo; and for 
horticulture, one at Tukto near Seoul, and another at 
Gensan. Besides these, I caused the establishment of 
nurseries in all the provinces, charged with the investiga- 
tion of all matters relating to agriculture, examinations and 
tests of agricultural products, fertilizers and so forth, 
giving instmction in improved agricultural methods and 
distribution of seeds and seedlings. I also caused sericul- 
tural schools and agricultural schools to be established, the 
former in many places, and the latter in important local 
centres. Further, I appointed a large number of experts 
to the central and provincial offices to teach and guide Ko- 
reans in general agricultural industry, sericulture, stock- 
breeding, irrigation and so forth. I also occasionally issued 
special instructions with regard to the cultivation of rice 
and upland cotton, sericultural industry and stock-breeding, 
and showed methods to be pursued in effecting improve- 
ment and obtaining increased crops. Finally, in order to 
encourage the general agricultural industry, I aboHshed, in 
1912, export duties on rice, cotton, silk-cocoons, and many 
other agricultural products.' ' ^ 

Large credit is due Viscount Terauchi for this beneficent 
work. Continued improvement, too, was made in the 
character of the Japanese population in Korea. Most of 
the soldiers who fought in the Russia-Japan War were en- 
couraged to return to Japan when their terms of enlistment 
expired. The adventurers who had flocked in at the close 
of the war found the changed conditions less favorable 
to them and began to go back to their native land, and the 
Japanese who came in their place were of a distinctly better 
class. 

When Viscount Terauchi became Prime Minister of the 
Empire, in 1916, he was succeeded in the Governor-General- 
ship of Korea by Field-Marshal Viscount Hasegawa, an- 
other able soldier and administrator, and he carried on the 

1 Report to the Throne, 1914. 



BENEFITS OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 361 

great task of reconstruction along the lines inaugurated by 
his capable predecessor. 

The Japanese officials whom I personally met in Seoul, 
Taiku, and Pyengyang, impressed me as men of high grade 
who did not suffer in comparison with many white colonial 
administrators in similar positions in Asia. Judge Noboru 
Watanabe, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, is a Presby- 
terian elder, a Christian gentleman of as fine a type as one 
could find anywhere. He makes no secret of his faith, and 
shortly after his arrival in Seoul he accepted a missionary's 
invitation to speak to the large Korean congregation in 
the Yun Mot Kol Church in Seoul. He took as his text 
Eph. 4 : 4-6, and preached Christ with earnestness and 
power. His wife is a woman of like culture and faith, and 
was President of the Woman's Christian Temperance Society 
when their home was in Yokohama. 

My interview with the Japanese Resident at Taiku de- 
veloped some interesting facts. I found the Resident, Mr. 
Saburo Hisamidsu, an intelligent man of about fifty years 
of age, who was formerly for six years Consul-General at 
Seattle, Washington, and who spoke EngHsh fluently. He 
received me cordially and described with enthusiasm a 
plan of having the Korean magistrates of the forty-one 
counties under his jurisdiction come to Taiku once a year 
for special instruction. He said that Httle could be accom- 
plished by the mere promulgation of laws and ordinances; 
for while many of the Korean officials were well-meaning 
men, they were without the knowledge and experience that 
would enable them to carry out the reforms which the 
Japanese had inaugurated. He stated that the second an- 
nual conference of this kind was then in session and that he 
would be glad to have me visit it. I replied that it would 
be very gratifying for me to do so, and he thereupon took 
me to the conference. It was held in a long, low room, but 
well-lighted and ventilated. The Korean magistrates were 
seated at two parallel tables extending the full length of the 
room. The name and residence of each magistrate were 
posted on a strip of paper about six inches wide and fifteen 



3G2 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

inches long hanging from the edge of the table in front of 
him. The Japanese Resident, the Korean Governor, a 
Japanese secretary, an interpreter and six Japanese clerks 
occupied seats at the head of the room. The Korean 
Governor was president of the conference, though it was 
evident that the real leadership was with the Japanese 
Secretary. At the first conference the year before, twenty- 
nine of the forty-one county magistrates were present, 
and all but three wore the traditional topknot. This year 
forty of the forty-one magistrates attended, and not one 
wore a topknot, all having their hair cut in Japanese style. 
The magistrates manifested keen interest in the proceed- 
ings and discussed the various topics with animation. 
They were apparently learning some useful things. Mr. 
Hisamidsu gave me a copy of the printed programme and 
the rules and the regulations which were being taught. 
It was an octavo pamphlet of twenty-two pages, and dealt 
with such subjects as the making and repairing of roads, 
the erection and care of public buildings, the clerical staff 
required in offices of various grades, sanitary rules and their 
enforcement, police regulations, etc. Sample reports and 
vouchers were given, and methods of keeping accounts 
were explained. The conference was in session eight days 
and I could readily see how such instruction would increase 
the intelligence and efficiency of the magistrates who at- 
tended it. Koreans who accept office under the Japanese 
are not always popular with their countrymen, but these 
Koreans certainly became wiser magistrates than their 
predecessors. 

Some of the acts which have given offense to the Koreans 
were inevitable. It is not possible for a conquering army in 
time of war to sweep through a country and not incur the 
fear and hatred of the native population ; and Japan had to 
do this twice within a decade. Moreover, when the Japanese 
took control of Korea, they found one of the worst and most 
inefficient governments imaginable. It would not be easy 
to exaggerate the extremity of the situation. Save for a 
few local improvements which had been made by foreigners. 



BENEFITS OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 363 

there were no roads, no railways, no telegraphs, no schools 
worthy of the name (except mission schools), no justice in 
the courts, no uniform currency — ^practically nothing of 
any kind that a people need. The Japanese had to create 
all the external conditions of stable government and civil- 
ized life, and to create them against the opposition of a 
corrupt and degenerate ruling class and the inherited inertia 
and squalor of a people who had so long acquiesced in mis- 
government and injustice that they had ceased to care. 
When the energetic reforms of the Japanese spurred them 
out of their indolence and apathy and made them go to 
work and to clean up their filthy alleys, they were as cross 
and peevish as the slum-dwellers of New York and Chicago 
when sanitary laws order them to cease sweat-shop work in 
living rooms, to stop throwing garbage into the streets, and 
to submit to vaccination and tenement inspection. The 
profligate official class more or less secretly hated the Japa- 
nese and hoped for the triumph of the Russians because the 
Russians were not disposed to interfere so seriously with the 
old order and were willing to let vicious magistrates and 
court ministers neglect and rob and abuse the people pro- 
vided they recognized Russian supremacy. Russia in Korea 
would have meant abimdance of foreign gold, the continu- 
ance of profligacy, misgovernment, and filth, and in general 
the poHcy of laissez-faire. The magistrates, finding their 
corrupt practices interfered with and their extortionate 
gains cut off, raised a loud outcry, and the swarm of para- 
sites who lounged about their yamens swelled the clamor. 
I have referred in a former chapter to the charges of 
forced labor and the seizure of property without due com- 
pensation. But even these questions have two sides. 
There undoubtedly were instances of great hardship to Ko- 
reans who were compelled to leave their fields and to toil 
on public works, often at a distance from their homes. 
Some Koreans, too, received little or nothing for land which 
they were forced to surrender. I would not minimize this 
gross injustice. The following letter from one important 
city describes a typical experience: "With the advent of 



364 THE MASTERY OE THE EAR EAST 

many Japanese, the coming of the railroad; the confiscation 
of land and houses by Japanese merchants and others, the 
injustice of the Korean magistrate, his apparent alliance 
with the Japanese to force Koreans to sell at great loss, the 
indefiniteness of Korean deeds, the lack of a system for re- 
cording deeds, the high-handed measures of Japanese and 
French and the Korean officials, many compHcations over 
property questions arise. The Japanese have staked off 
their purchases, marking the stakes as defining Japanese 
property. The railroad men have run the line through 
growing crops and houses, and on either side of it have 
marked off a large concession of hundreds of acres contain- 
ing the best land and best houses in the province. The 
land and four hundred houses have been condemned, and 
the people are ordered out by the Japanese and Korean 
officials and told to look to the Korean Government for 
pay. They are paid for their houses through the Korean 
magistrate, and although not treated impartially are, on 
the whole, paid a pretty fair compensation. I have not 
heard of any one having been paid for land or crops, but 
on the contrary, apparently reliable reports say that within 
this concession the magistrate himself is buying up land at 
a cheap price and selling it to the Japanese. The people 
are highly enraged and see no hope of redress. They do 
not understand what is being done, cannot trust their own 
oflficials, are being driven out of house and land, and lose 
their crops. Ignorant and helpless, they are the victims of 
all kinds of sharpers. Outside of this 'concession^ also, the 
Japanese have bought hundreds of fields and the French 
have bought some. The latter with high-handed measures 
forced the people who had houses on their property to tear 
them down under threats of exacting a high rent for them. 
This produced intense indignation.'^ A letter from another 
city said that the Japanese were buying all available land 
sites; that they had laid out a regular settlement with 
broad, straight streets, having razed a whole Korean vil- 
lage that stood in the wa}^, and that they were tearing 
down the city wall to put a street through. 



BENEFITS OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 365 

On the other hand, it should be borne in mind that it 
would have been difficult if not impossible for the Japanese 
authorities to cany out some of the improvements that are 
of large value to the whole country, such as roads, railways, 
sanitation, etc., if they had been obliged to depend upon 
the voluntary labor of Korean peasants, who are admitted 
by their warmest admirers to be lazy and shiftless, and who, 
even when diligent and ambitious, do not like Japanese 
taskmasters. The Japanese claim that they had no in- 
tention of forcing Koreans to labor, but that their contrac- 
tors were given written and officially stamped requests for 
so many hundred laborers to be presented to Korean offi- 
cials. The Korean magistrates, however, understood these 
"requests'' as equivalent to demands. Complaints be- 
came numerous, and were so well substantiated that an 
order was issued January 6, 1906, forbidding railway con- 
tractors to apply to the Korean authorities for laborers. 

As for land, every government has the unquestionable 
and absolutely necessary right to take private property 
under the right of eminent domain. It ought to pay a fair 
price for it. The Japanese affirm that they tried to do this, 
but that the Korean magistrates, through whom the ar- 
rangements were made, pocketed the money. Japanese 
officials, not knowing the Korean language, were obliged 
to deal through native interpreters and "go-betweens,'' 
who were not always honest. If a piece of property was to 
be bought, the "go-betv/een" might take it for a quarter 
of its value under threat of Japanese vengeance, collect full 
price from the Japanese purchaser, and steal the difference. 
Land titles, too, were in hopeless confusion, as missionaries 
and mission boards knew to their cost, and it was not always 
easy to discriminate between state property, which the 
government had a right to use, and private property, for 
which owners were entitled to compensation. These con- 
siderations do not wholly excuse the Japanese, for they did 
not always pay fair prices, and they knew the bad character 
of the native magistrates and "go-betweens"; but it is 
only just to recognize the difficulties of the situation. 



366 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

The annual reports of the Government-General, entitled 
Rejorvis and Progress in Korea, are very interesting reading. 
They describe what has been done and what is projected 
under such headings as "Administration/' '^ Judiciary/' 
"Peace and Order/' "Finance/' "Currency/' "Banking/' 
"Government Undertakings/' "Civil Engineering Works/' 
"Communications/' "Commerce/' "Agriculture/' "Trade 
and Industiy/' "Mining/' "Forestry/' "Fishery/' "Sani- 
tation/' and "Education." Appendices, tables of statistics, 
maps, and illustrations make these reports a valuable com- 
pendium of Japanese efforts in Korea. The Japanese, like 
Americans, naturally put their best foot forward in reports 
that are issued for the outside world. The most favorable 
construction is placed upon their acts. Highly virtuous 
language is employed in setting forth their intentions. 
Unpleasant things are as skilfully minimized as malaria and 
mosquitoes are in the glowing accounts of summer-resort 
proprietors in the United States. But after making due 
allowances for this common characteristic of all such writ- 
ings, the general fact remains that the Japanese have done 
wonders in Korea. Grant that many of the reforms may 
be found in a well-regulated penal colony, and that a cita- 
tion of them does not meet all the questions that may be 
fairly raised. The reforms are none the less valuable and 
praiseworthy. 

The Japanese have changed the names of places in a 
way that appears odd to a foreigner. The renaming has 
some justification, for a number of the names that have 
become famiHar to English readers are crude attempts at 
phonetic spellings of what foreigners understood to be Ko- 
rean pronmiciation. "Coria" was the name that the early 
Portuguese sailors gave to the country, a corruption of 
"Korai," the name of one of the native states into which 
the peninsula was long divided. Europe took this name 
from the Portuguese, the French rendering it La Coree, 
and the English Corea or Korea. The people themselves 
for many centuries have called their country Chosen (The 
Morning Calm). As this is the real name of the country, 




_a^S^»i£:^^ry^' 



Xcw Offices of the Government-General, Seoul. 
To be completed in 1924 at a cost of yen 3,000,000. 




Telephone Exchange in the Post-Office, Seoul. 




Post-Office, Seoul. 
Completed in 1915. 



BENEFITS OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 367 

the Japanese, properly enough, have adopted it. They are 
not to be blamed either for rejecting imported European 
names and foreign spellings of native sounds that are aHen 
to Asia, and substituting a Japanese spelling or restoring a 
native name which foreigners had arbitrarily changed. 
The new spellings are said to represent the Japanese pro- 
nunciation of the Chinese characters which the cities have 
long borne. The Japanese did not, therefore change the 
names but merely their English form. When, however, 
they attempt to give an English phonetic version of their 
pronunciation of a Chinese character applied to a Korean 
locality, the result is sometimes startling and confusing to a 
traveller. I do not profess to be an authority on the lan- 
guages of China, Japan, and Korea, and consequently can 
only express my ignorant and humble admiration for the 
combination of Asiatic loyalty and linguistic agihty which 
have transformed Pyengyang into Heijo, Seoul into Keijo, 
Songdo into Kaijo, and Chemulpo into Jinsen. The new 
nomenclature is gradually becoming familiar, although there 
will be some confusion until corrected maps become availa- 
ble to Western readers. 

The fact is that the Japanese have made Korea an integral 
part of their empire, and that they are reorganizing every 
phase of it in accordance with their national characteristics 
and methods. In pursuance of this policy of assimilation, 
the imperial government in 1916 gave open sanction to in- 
termarriages by betrothing Princess Nashimoto, a daughter 
of a Prince of the Japanese imperial family, to Prince Yi, 
Jr., who was Crown Prince when his elder brother was Em- 
peror. The betrothal evoked no enthusiasm, but with 
the encouragement of such an example, marriages of Japan- 
ese and Koreans are becoming more frequent than formerly. 
It is doubtful whether such unions will become general, at 
least for a considerable period, for the rather matter-of-fact 
reason that Japanese men deem their own countrywomen 
far more attractive and congenial than Korean women, 
whose physical charms, it must be confessed, average con- 
siderably lower than those of Japanese women. 



3G8 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

The Japanese are making effortS; too, to win the support 
of prominent Koreans. Men who show a disposition to be 
loyal to the government are given such positions as they 
are deemed fitted to occupy. Quite a number of the provin- 
cial governors and local officials of various grades are native 
Koreans. There is usually a Japanese ^^ resident '^ close 
by to "advise" them, but the Korean enjoys the title and 
show of office, at any rate. 

October 9, 1910, Governor-General Terauchi, in the name 
of the Emperor of Japan, formally created a Korean peerage 
of the Empire, and conferred the rank of marquis upon six 
Koreans, count upon three, viscount upon twenty-two, and 
baron upon forty-five. The function was made an impos- 
ing one with all the ceremony that was calculated to make 
a deep impression upon the new peers and upon their coun- 
trymen. 

While Korean children are urged to attend the free public 
schools, to which we have referred in another chapter, 
promising young men are encouraged to go to Japan for 
collegiate and technical courses, and Korean students may 
now be found in the Imperial University and in a variety of 
medical, industrial, normal, and other schools. These young 
men naturally imbibe a good deal of Japanese sentiment, 
and return to their own land to become capable instruments 
of the Government-General. 

Many of the Japanese in Korea shrink from the full ap- 
plication of the policy of equality and assimilation. "Birds 
of a feather flock together" there as everywhere else, and 
the Japanese naturally live in sections which are distinct 
from the Korean town, and have their own clubs, schools, 
churches, and social life. The average Japanese considers 
himself superior to the Korean and with reason. Making 
all due allowance for exceptions and for the rapid levelling-up 
process that is now going on as the result of improved gov- 
ernmental, economic, educational, and religious conditions, 
the present fact is indubitable that the Japanese do represent 
a higher civilization and culture in Korea, and they are prone 
to act accordingly in their relations with "the natives." 



BENEFITS OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 369 

The latter are sensitively quick to see this and to feel hurt 
by it. It is not surprising, therefore, that in most places 
the social cleavage is marked. That cleavage is notoriously 
wide between Americans and Filipinos in the Philippine 
Islands, in spite of the earnest efforts of the Governor- 
General in Manila and the beneficent desires of the ad- 
ministration in Washington. How long was it before the 
English, Scotch, Welsh and Irish peoples were welded into 
a single nationality in common feeling and purpose? Are 
the Irish welded in yet? So in Korea, considerable time 
must pass before the Japanese and Koreans are really one 
people. 

Meantime, we have the impression that the Government- 
General is honestly trying to develop the policy of assimila- 
tion as fast as it deems practicable. 

To his '^Instructions to the Japanese Residents in Korea," 
shortly after his arrival in 1910, Viscount Terauchi added 
these wise words: "The aim and purpose of the annexation 
is to consoHdate the bonds of two countries, removing all 
causes for the territorial and national discriminations neces- 
sarily existing as separate powers, so as perfectly to promote 
the mutual welfare and happiness of the two peoples in gen- 
eral. Consequently, should the Japanese people regard it as 
a result of the conquest of a weak country by a stronger one, 
and speak and act under such illusion in an overbearing and 
undignified manner, they would go contrary to the spirit in 
which the present step has been taken. Japanese settlers 
in Korea seem to have considered themselves to be living in 
a foreign land and have often fallen into the mistake of hold- 
ing themselves as superiors at the expense of the people of 
the country. It is opportune that things have now as- 
sumed a new aspect. Let them take this opportunity to 
change their ideas and attitude toward the people of Korea. 
Let them always bear in mind that they are our brothers 
and treat them with sympathy and friendship ; and in pur- 
suing individual avocations by mutual help and co-opera- 
tion, both peoples should contribute their shares to the 
progress and growth of the whole Empire." 



370 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Intelligent opinion in Japan is supporting this policy, as 
witness the following extract from an article in a leading 
Tokyo newspaper, entitled '^ Assimilation Through Love 
and Sympathy." ^'Koreans/' said the writer, ^^are often 
spoken of as being a people who deserve no sympathy. 
But what is it that has made them so crooked in thought, 
perfidious, deceitful, and treacherous? Ages of maladmin- 
istration, and in that respect the}^ indeed deserve all sym- 
pathy. True, there are incorrigible Koreans who would 
spurn sympathy; on them force may properly be used. It 
is indeed unfortunate that unscrupulous adventurers have 
gone to Korea and by their evil conduct given a bad and 
wrong impression of the Japanese people as a whole; but 
such men are being dealt with as they deserve, and justice 
is being administered as never before." 

The foreigner who indiscriminately denounces the Japa- 
nese may discreetly remember that the alleged Christian 
nations have not set Japan a very good example in dealing 
with subject races. To say nothing of French harshness in 
Madagascar, and Spanish oppression in Cuba and the 
Philippines, is any American proud of his country's treat- 
ment of the Indians for two hundred years after the white 
man came ? If there is such an American, his spirit will be 
chastened by reading some of the voluminous literature on 
the subject, including Helen Hunt Jackson's A Century of 
Dishonor. And what about the flagrant injustice of our 
treatment of the Chinese and Japanese on the Pacific 
coast? As for the Philippines, while the executive de- 
partment of the American Government has done admirably 
and we '^ point with pride" to what has been accomplished, 
it was a painfully long time before Congress could be in- 
duced to pass some laws which meant simple justice to the 
Filipinos, and Mr. Taft, when Governor-General, pubHcly 
lamented the brutalities committed by some dissolute 
Americans in the archipelago. Can we reasonably expect 
Japan to do better by the Koreans than many Western 
nations have done by their conquered peoples? 

I am not excusing the Japanese. Faults should not be 



BENEFITS OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 371 

condoned because other people commit them. I am simply 
reminding the reader of the magnitude and difficulty of 
their task^ and that any disposition to be unduly censorious 
in judging them should be tempered by a frank recognition 
of the difficulties of the situation. Grant that they have 
not always acted in accordance with the standards of 
Christian altruism ; that they have made political and mili- 
tary necessity the first consideration; that some of their 
methods have been ruthless and that they have sometimes 
made the process of readjustment needlessly trying to the 
helpless natives. But let us remember that there never 
was a dirtier Augean stable to be cleansed than that which 
they found in the land of The Morning Calm^ and that the 
mess required decisive measures. The historian of the next 
generation will be in better position to take an impartial 
view than men of to-day, who are in danger of having their 
judgment warped by the personal feelings that have been 
aroused. 

Trying to look at the matter as fairly as possible now, I 
believe that the balance incHnes heavily in favor of the 
Japanese. I do not defend some of the things that they 
have done. I sympathize with the Koreans. They would 
be unworthy of respect if they did not prefer their national 
freedom. One can understand why the injustice of their 
own magistrates seemed less irksome than the stem justice 
of alien conquerors. Nevertheless I confess to sympathy 
also with the Japanese. They were forced to occupy Korea 
to prevent a Russian occupation, which would have men- 
aced their own independence as a nation. They are now 
struggling with their burden against heavy odds, with lim- 
ited financial resources, and against the dislike and opposi- 
tion of Koreans, Russians, Chinese, and most of the foreign- 
ers in the Far East. While we should as frankly discuss 
their methods as we would those of our own country in 
similar circumstances, as I have done in other chapters of 
this book, we should avoid the error of assuming that we 
can help the Koreans by unjust abuse of their rulers. 

It would be narrow and unscientific to estimate the his- 



372 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

toric value of the Japanese occupation of Korea solely by 
incidental defects of method or spirit, just as it would be 
to protest that a transcontinental line of railway should 
not have been built because the right-of-way injured some 
man^s property, or a brutal foreman committed acts of 
violence against his person or family. We should view a 
movement in historic perspective, deprecating indeed the 
wrongs of the people concerned, and visiting full blame 
upon those who unnecessarily caused them, but recognizing 
nevertheless that results, even when achieved by imper- 
fect human instruments, are to be measured rather by 
their worth to the country and the world than by the follies 
and crimes of some of the men who had a part in the effort. 
Looking at the question of Japanese administration as a 
whole, we must bear in mind that there are a large way and 
a small way of viewing it. 

The large way is to note that in the evolution of the race 
and the development of international conditions when it 
was clearly inevitable, and, for the time at least, for the 
welfare of the Koreans themselves that Korea should come 
under the tutelage of Japan. All great movements in this 
world, however beneficent in general character and ulti- 
mate purpose, involve human agents with their full share 
of human infirmities. Some of these agents are apt to be 
selfish, some greedy, some cruel, some lustful. The de- 
velopment of a movement, therefore, is certain to be at- 
tended by many individual acts that are wrong. Historic 
illustrations will at once occur to every student. The 
Protestant Reformation in Europe was not free from bigotry 
and passion on the side of the Reformers. The abolition of 
slavery in the United States was accomphshed in a war 
whose moral majesty was tarnished by many acts of cruelty 
and passion; and it is an unpleasant chapter in American 
history that records the nefarious acts of Northern "carpet- 
baggers^' in the South after the war. It was clearly for 
the best interests of Africa and the world that Great Britain 
should overthrow the cormpt and reactionary oligarchy 
that was masquerading under the name of a republic in the 



BENEFITS OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 373 

Transvaal; but England did many things in that war and 
in the months following which her best people do not like 
to remember. 

The small way of considering a historical question is to 
fix our attention on such acts of individuals or even on the 
poHcies of men temporarily in official position. We should 
not hastily conclude that, because a period of transition is 
turbulent and many of its agents are blundering or un- 
scrupulous; the movement itself is bad. It is right that we 
should plainly and firmly protest against Japanese acts of 
injustice to the helpless Koreans, right to do everything in 
our power to remedy injustice; but it w^ould be grievously 
wi'ong to act on the supposition that Japan is not likely to 
remain in Korea and to antagonize the general policy of re- 
construction. We sympathize with the natural aspirations 
of any people for an independent nationality: but the Ko- 
reans could not be independent anyw^ay under present con- 
ditions in the Far East, and they are far better off under 
the Japanese than they were under their own rulers or 
than they would have been under the Russians. Nothing 
could be worse for Korea than plunging her back into the 
abyss of corruption, weakness, and oppression of the old 
regime. A new order is being established. The Koreans 
are being given better opportunities for advancement. 
The Japanese are the political and economic agents through 
whom this uplifting movement is being developed. They 
have made some mistakes and they will doubtless make 
more; but on the whole their work in Korea has been 
beneficent in many ways. Of course it is hard for the Ko- 
reans, and for their foreign friends who came to the coun- 
try in the old days, to adapt themselves to the changed 
conditions ; but there is no alternative, and it is the part of 
wisdom ungrudgingly to recognize the inescapable situation. 

As time passes some Koreans are gradually accepting the 
new conditions, or at least submitting to them. There are 
indeed many who are restive under Japanese rule, and who 
intrigue against it. It would be expecting too much of 
human nature to assume that milhons of people would 



374 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

unanimously agree to the extinction of national independ- 
ence. In the spring of 1919, they led an uprising to which 
special circumstances gave suiprising magnitude. President 
Wilson's declaration of the right of self-determination had 
fired the imagination of many dependent peoples. Egyp- 
tians and East Indians demanded freedom from Great 
Britain, and Filipinos from America. Korean fervor also 
flamed up. A revolutionary movement was inaugurated so 
secretly that missionaries and Japanese were caught un- 
awares. The funeral of the old Emperor was the chosen 
time, and March 1, 1919, independence was proclaimed. 
Pathos and childlikeness strangely mingled as the unarm_ed 
crowds (the Koreans are not permitted to have weapons) 
radiantly shouted and sang, as if their mere proclamation 
had made them free. The result proved anew that Japan 
win not voluntarily grant Korean independence; that the 
Koreans cannot secure it by force; and that other govern- 
ments, having long ago recognized Japanese annexation of 
the peninsula, will not interfere. The Japanese gendarmes 
were infuriated, and wreaked merciless vengeance upon 
guilty and innocent aHke — ^burning villages, firing into 
crowds, arresting and torturing thousands, and displa}dng 
special malignity against Christians in the belief that the 
churches and schools were centres of sedition, in spite of the 
fact that the agitation also included Buddhists, members 
of the Chun Do Kyo (a patriotic society of non-Chris- 
tians), and students in government schools.^ 

Costly, too, was the movement to the Japanese, for it re- 
enforced their critics, disheartened their friends, alienated 
the sympathy of alhed nations, and brought upon the ruth- 
less mihtarists the opprobrious name of "the Huns of the 
Orient. '^ A tidal wave of indignant protest swept over 
America and Great Britain. There was little sympathy 
with the uprising as a political movement, for well-informed 
observers knew its futility. The protest was against the 
brutality of the methods employed in suppressing it. 
Prime Minister Hara, in response to urgent representations, 

^ cf . pamphlet — "The Korean Situation," by the Commission on Relations 
with the Orient of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. 



BENEFITS OF JAPANESE RULE IN KOREA 375 

promised reforms; but that such atrocities should have been 
committed at all, and should have gone on unchecked until 
outside pressure was brought to bear, seriously impaired 
Japanese prestige. In August, Field Marshal Viscount 
Hasegawa was replaced as Governor-General by Admiral 
Baron Minoru Saito, and Mr. Rentaro Midzuno was ap- 
pointed Director-General of Administration. The former 
pubhcly declared that he would '^govern Korea in the in- 
terest of the Koreans" and '^abolish all forms of discrim- 
ination"; rthat "the gendarmerie, the unpopular gold 
braids and swords worn by officials will be discontinued"; 
and that "all the people will be given impartial justice." 
Admiral Saito has sincerely tried to csivry out this program. 
Unfortunately, many of the subordinate officials through 
whom he has had to work, particularly in the local districts, 
have not been in S3^mpathy with his reforms, so that while 
there has been improvement in some respects, abusive treat- 
ment of suspected Koreans has continued. 

If the Japanese really desire to amalgamate Korea in the 
Em_pire, they will do well to make the transition as easy as 
possible for Koreans who are sore of heart as they brood 
over their country's subjugation. There are indeed limits 
to prudent indifference; but the policy of sternly punishing 
every suspected person fans the revolutionary spirit into 
flame, as the histor}^ of Russia proves. He is a wise ruler, 
as he is a mse parent, who knows when it is better good- 
naturedly to ignore certain manifestations than it is to 
make a fuss about them. Criticism of a government, like 
steam, is seldom dangerous when it is allowed free vent in 
the open air. It is when repressed that it develops ex- 
plosive power. The Koreans are rapidly acquiring the 
quahties that fit a people for intelligent self-determination. 
If Japan, as many Japanese desire, is to be regarded as the 
Great Britain of the Far East, is Korea to be to her an 
integrally related Scotland, a self-governing and loyal 
Canada, or a turbulent and revolutionary Ireland? An 
altruistic and conciliatory policy T^dll weld the peninsula 
and the island empire into a compact nation which wiU 
again illustrate the saying that in umon there is strength. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
THE SOCIAL AND MORPHINE EVILS 

The moral conditions in Japan have long been of an un- 
pleasant character. Although improvement has been made 
in recent years, licentiousness is still regarded as a com- 
paratively venial offense, and it involves less reproach both 
to men and women than in any other country in the world 
which lays claim to civiHzed standing. Ten and three- 
tenths per cent of the births are illegitimate. The state- 
ment of a recent writer that he has ''no hesitation in de- 
scribing the morals of Japanese people to be on the whole 
greatly superior to those of Western nations/' is simply 
pathetic. A man who can visit Japan and carry away such 
an impression is beyond argument. Murphy's The Social 
Evil in Japan describes the true situation with startling 
clearness. It is not an agreeable book to read, but its re- 
liabiHty is indisputable. The author wrote out of the per- 
sonal knowledge that he had painfully acquired in a strug- 
gle of many years to save multitudes of Japanese girls from 
the virtual slavery of a prostitute's life. 

The alleged easier lot of the Japanese courtesan, as com- 
pared with that of her American and European sisters, is 
largely imaginary. It is true that she does not suffer the 
same sense of shame and guilt, and that she is not so com- 
pletely ostracized. But she is the victim of the same kind 
of maltreatment from brutal keepers; she is involved in the 
same debts from which she can seldom extricate herself; she 
contracts the same foul diseases ; and, until missionaries took 
up the struggle in her behalf, she had Httle better chance of 
escaping from her keepers and returning to a normal life 
before she was irretrievabty wrecked in health. Young and 
ignorant girls were persuaded or forced to register as pros- 

376 



THE SOCIAL AND MORPHINE EVILS 377 

titutes at the police stations; and were then assigned to the 
segregated districts. They were required to fulfil the con- 
tract which they thoughtlessly signed, and, if they man- 
aged to escape, the police often helped to capture them and 
send them back. 

Many Japanese do not appear to have a conscience on 
the subject of impurity. They are unmoral rather than 
immoral, and they frequently stare with ill-concealed sur- 
prise when they are told that the common licentiousness is 
wrong. Mr. Galen W. Fisher, Secretary of the Y. M. C. A. 
in Tokyo, vouches for the statement that the principal of a 
large normal school said that he not only patronized houses 
of iU fame himself, but that he advised his teachers to do 
so, and that he even gave them tickets so that at the end 
of each month the bills would be sent to him for payment 
and deducted from their salaries.^ Captain Bechel, who 
travelled about Japan for seventeen years, investigated 
one hundred and seven districts and foimd ninety-six of 
them pestilentially immoral. He reports that phalHc wor- 
ship is still practised in many Buddhist shrines, and that in 
some districts almost all the adults are tainted with im- 
morality. He speaks of a principal of a school who had 
several paramours with the knowledge of parents and chil- 
dren alike; of a member of parliament who publicly had 
two concubines; of a member of a provisional assembly 
who had two wives and two homes, and children in each, 
and travelled with geisha; and of leading men, including 
priests, soncho (chief of village), doctor, principal of the 
school, and leading business mxcn who sold a girl of twelve 
years for ten yen because her parents could not support 
her, and she might become a charge to the village.^ 

The reliability of Ernest W. Clement's Handbook of Mod- 
ern Japan is not likely to be questioned by any prudent 
man. The author has lived too long in Japan to be igno- 

^ Pamphlet, Japanese Young Men in War and Peace, published by the 
International Committee of the Y. M. C. A., New York. 

2 Article, "Japan's Need and Response," in the Missionary Review of the 
World, January, 1917, pp. 5-6. 



378 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

rant of the facts, and he writes : '' As is well known, the social 
evil is Hcensed, and therefore legalized, in Japan; it is not 
merely not condenmed but actually condoned. In Old Ja- 
pan, the young girl willing to sell herself to a life of shame to 
reheve the poverty and distress of her parents would be con- 
sidered virtuous, because fiUal piety was regarded as a higher 
virtue than personal chastity. Nor would the parents who 
accepted such relief be severely condemned, because the 
welfare of the family was more important than the condi- 
tion of the individual. And even in modem Japan, in the 
eyes of the law, it is no crime to visit a licensed house of 
ill fame; and visitors to such places hand in their cards 
and have their names registered just as if they were attend- 
ing an ordinary public function. Nay, more, an ex-president 
of the Imperial University and one of the leading philos- 
ophers and educators of the day has come out in public 
print and affirmed that, from the standpoint of science and 
philosophy, he can see no evil in prostitution per se." ^ 

Ideas of modesty in all countries are influenced to some 
extent by convention, and American women who would 
shaiply resent the charge of indehcacy will sometimes ap- 
pear at social functions and even on the street in costumes 
which the Chinese would deem highly immoral. The 
visitor in Japan should, therefore, not infer too much from 
the exposure of the nude which is often observed in public 
places, and in bathing by both men and women. But mak- 
mg all due allowance for custom in such matters, the gen- 
eral fact is indubitable that the pubhc sentiment of Japan 
is pervaded by the idea that lust is a natural appetite which 
may be almost as properly gratified as one would gratify 
appetite for food and thirst for drink. I am not unmindful 
that there is shameful immorality in the cities of Europe 
and America, and that most of the foreign settlements in 
the ports of Asia include sinks of iniquity of which Sodom 
and Gomorrah might have been ashamed. Hundreds of 
Asiatic women are kept by dissolute Americans and Euro- 
peans, and the arrival of a steamer load of tourists usually 

^ A Handbook of Modern Japan, pp. 166-167. 



THE SOCIAL AND MORPHINE EVILS 379 

means a harvest for the brothels of the port. No Asiatic 
can be viler than a degenerate white man. 

Nor is Japan alone in Hcensing prostitutes. Some men 
in Western lands deem governmental regulation under a 
license system a better way of dealing with the social evil 
than to permit it to run at large under prohibitory laws, 
which are usually a dead letter, except as poHce use them 
as a means for self -enrichment. Japan has followed the 
lead of some European nations in licensing a vice which no 
government has ever eradicated. But whatever may be 
the theory, the practical effect of licensure is to advertise 
vice, make it easy and attractive, and clothe it with official 
sanction. Very few governments are in such open alliance 
with vice as the Japanese municipal governments appear to 
be, and no brothel in all the world displays Christian sym- 
bols as Japanese brothels display Buddhist sjmibols, or is 
indorsed by Christian ministers or educators as Buddhists 
more or less openly indorse them in Japan. 

I am aware that some remedial laws have now been en- 
acted, and that restrictive decisions have been handed 
down by the courts. The "Free Cassation Regulation, '^ 
issued by the Home Department October 2, 1900, gave 
Hcensed women the right to leave resorts without the con- 
sent of their keepers, and thousands of girls have availed 
themselves of this right, so that an inmate of a brothel is 
no longer a legal captive for the period of her contract. 
Girls under sixteen years of age may not be lawfully licensed 
at all. Test cases have been fought through the courts 
which form gratifying precedents for future suits. Rescue 
homes have been opened, and the number of licensed pros- 
titutes has been greatly reduced. But these improvements 
were obtained chiefly as the result of agitation aroused by 
missionaries led by Mr. Murphy and the Salvation Army 
against a vehemence and bitterness of opposition which 
Mr. Murphy has vividly described. When, in 1916, the 
authorities of Osaka gave a permit to replace a burned vice 
district by the erection of brothels on a tract of seventeen 
acres near Tennoji Park, the Zoological Garden, and Luna 



380 THE MASTERY OE THE EAR EAST 

Park, the most popular recreation grounds in the city, the 
Christians organized the ^'Tobita Licensed Quarter Opposi- 
tion Society," and under the leadership of Mr. George 
Gleason of the Y. M. C. A., and Colonel Yamamuro of the 
Salvation Army, began a campaign which enlisted the hearty 
co-operation of many of the best Japanese. Letters were 
sent to 2,000 leading citizens asking them to make a public 
declaration of their attitude. Six hundred sent favorable 
replies, and only 3 wrote in opposition to the movement. 
But nearly 1,400 made no reply. A procession of Japanese 
women headed by the venerable Christian, Madame Yajima, 
eighty-two years of age, went through the streets to present 
a petition to the Governor to abandon the scheme. He was 
^Hoo busy" to see them, but they succeeded in getting ac- 
cess to the chief of police. The Far East, a Tokyo publica- 
tion, reported that though "the matter has now been before 
the public for months past," it is "remarkable that those 
in authority have not seen the advisability of determining 
such an unsavor}^ business by a concession to pubhc opinion, 
which has been expressed with unusual force." A Supreme 
Court ruling that the debts of inmates to their brothel 
proprietors are binding leaves a powerful weapon in the 
hands of keepers, who are as notorious in Japan as else- 
where for cheating and overcharging their girls so as to 
keep them continually in debt. 

The following extract from a report that was published 
for the Standing Committee of Co-operating Christian 
Missions in Japan shows how the laws are evaded: "Strict 
guard is kept so that inmates cannot get out of the quarters 
easily without being detected. If detected, they are forced 
back, the section of the Regulations which provides for the 
punishment of those interfering with those who wish to 
secure their freedom being practically overlooked. After 
their arrival at the police station, the keepers or some of 
their hirelings follow and threaten, cajole, and plead in 
turn, in the endeavor to get them to go back. After the 
report has been accepted and the women are no longer 
inmates, the keepers often take from them their clothes and 



THE SOCIAL AND MORPHINE EVILS 381 

eave only thin, dirty dresses and obi. Immediately after 
me gets free, the keeper almost invariably distrains the 
Droperty of those who have put their stamps to the con- 
tract. This has been the most effectual method used so far. 
ibout 20 per cent return to a life of shame, and almost 
.vithout exception the distraint on the household goods of 
3arents and relatives furnishes the reason. A distraint is 
ikely to take nearly everything so that the hardships en- 
iured by those who are so unfortimate as to have their 
Droperty distrained upon are great, and from the point of 
^iew of those who are so low down in the moral and himian 
5cale as to sell their children for vile purposes it is too great 
I hardship to be endured for the sake of one^s offspring.'^ 

It is not surprising that the Japanese have carried their 
customs with them to the mainland of Asia. In China, in- 
3luding Manchuria, Japanese prostitutes abound in most of 
:he larger cities, especially the ports; and they are also 
"ound in many of the smaller towns in the northern and 
3astern parts of the country, and in the Philippines, For- 
nosa, and the Straits Settlements. The late John B. 
Devins, then editor of the New York Observer , wrote: 
^When passing through a government hospital in Manila, 
more than seventy Japanese women in one ward were 
pointed out as women of the street with the remark : ^ Nearly 
3very Japanese woman in the Philippines is an evil woman.' " 
It is said that 26,360 Japanese women are living as prosti- 
tutes outside of their own land. 

A particularly embarrassing situation has developed at 
Tsing-tau, the Chinese port which the Japanese took from 
bhe Germans after the outbreak of the European War, in 
1914. One of their early acts was to select a spacious tract 
For a "red-Hght'' section, and to erect several blocks of 
buildings upon it. The site chosen was close to the Presby- 
terian Mission compound, with its residences and schools. 
Respectful protests from the missionaries were politely re- 
ceived but were unavailing, the Japanese officials not con- 
cealing their surprise that such objections should be made. 
The buildings are commodious in size, attractive in appear- 



382 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

ancc, and substantial enough to indicate intentions of per- 
manence. When they were ready for occupancy, they were 
filled with girls, and there was a formal opening with elab- 
orate festivities. Invitations to this opening were sent to 
all the officials, prominent men, and foreigners in the city, 
except the American missionaries. Eveiy night the sounds 
of revelry come from the open-windowed and brightly 
lighted houses and the tastefully laid out gardens and park- 
ways comiected with them. Sleep is often impossible in 
the front bedrooms of the missionary residences, and the 
orgy seldom dies down till the early morning hours. 

Like conditions prevail in Korea. The tendency of men 
of all races to be more imrestrained abroad than at home 
is not lacking in the Japanese, and the result is a carnival 
of vice such as Korea never knew before. The remedial 
ordinances that have been enacted in recent years in Japan 
are nominally operative in Korea; but they are not enforced 
in any effective way except in sporadic cases. The Koreans 
are not a moral people, but they at least regarded sensu- 
ality as a private vice, and brothels as places to be kept in 
side alleys. But the Japanese have built houses of prosti- 
tution in Korea as they have built court-houses and railway- 
stations. "^.Vhen they locate a colony they usually set apart 
a section for brothels. Handsome buildings are erected, 
provided with music and electric lights, and made as attrac- 
tive as any places in the city. Nor are retired locations 
selected. In November, 1910, the Seoul authorities ordered 
the 130 brothels and immoral restaurants that were scat- 
tered over the Japanese quarter to remove to a segregated 
section. This order was carried out by police raids, and 
was an undoubted benefit to the business and residential 
districts in that part of the city. Unfortunately, the desig- 
nated site was on a prominent hillside within plain view 
of a far larger proportion of the capital than the resorts 
had been before. AVhen brilliantl}' illuminated, as it is 
every evening, it is the most conspicuous object in the city. 
Every bo}^ and girl in the missionary schools on the opposite 
hill cannot help knowing that it is there, and that it is 



THE SOCIAL AND MORPHINE EVILS 383 

thronged nightly by men who consider themselves re- 
spectable. 

Conditions substantially similar, although of course on a 
smaller scale, exist in practically every Japanese colony in 
Korea. Even where the number of Japanese is very small, 
it includes prostitutes. The evil is not confined to the 
^^ red-light'^ districts. Geisha (dancing-girls) are scattered 
about every considerable town, and waitresses in many of 
the inns, restaurants and drinking-shops are well under- 
stood to be prostitutes, although of course not all of them 
are. That the authorities know the facts is apparent from 
statistics which I obtained from official sources during my 
second visit, and which Hsted immoral women in Seoul and 
Pyengyang as '^prostitutes," '^ geisha, '^ and '^ waitresses in 
inns, saloons, and restaurants.'' The official records also 
showed that there was a monthly government tax collected 
from prostitutes and geisha. The number of Korean pros- 
titutes reported by the authorities in Seoul was also given 
me, and a comparison of the figures showed that one per- 
son in thirty-one of the Japanese population of the capital 
was then classffied as immoral, and that only one in 730 
of the Korean population w^as so classified. It is only fair 
to say, however, that the very publicity which the Japar 
nese give to the traffic makes it easier to tabulate their 
statistics than those of the Koreans, who are more secretive 
in this respect. 

Racial distinctions are obHterated by this social evil. 
Koreans are not only openly solicited to vice, but I was re- 
liably informed that it is not uncommon for Japanese pan- 
der ers to conduct small travelling parties of prostitutes 
from village to village in the country districts. The crown- 
ing outrage I could not bring myself to beheve if the editor 
of the Korea Review had not declared that "it is so fully 
proved both by foreign and native witnesses that it is be- 
yond dispute. In a certain town in Korea, the mihtary 
quartered soldiers in some Korean houses, and in others 
Japanese prostitutes. In a number of instances, Korean 
Christians were compelled to give up part of their houses 



384 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

to these prostitutes who carried on their nefarious business 
on the premises. We made careful inquiries about this 
unspeakable outrage on decency, and the fact was verified 
in the most positive manner/^ 

I am sorry to write so plainly on this unpleasant subject 
regarding a people whom I respect and admire in many 
ways. I am glad to know that increasing numbers of Japa- 
nese lament the virtual partnership of their authorities with 
the social evil, and would gladly see it dissolved and vice 
banished, at least to the underworld to which enlightened 
communities relegate it. One of the ways in which the 
friendly foreigner can help these high-minded Japanese to 
bring about better conditions is to make it clear that the 
public opinion of civihzed mankind condemns vice, and that 
those who indulge in it lose both their own character and 
the respect of the world. 

Judgment of social and economic conditions in Japan 
should be tempered by the reflection that the nation has 
but recently emerged from an era of ignorance regarding 
these subjects, that Western nations which have known 
these things much longer still have much to be ashamed 
of, and that increasing numbers of Japanese are earnestly 
trying to bring about a better state of affairs. Bishop 
Charles H. Brent sadly writes of his observations in the 
Philippines: ^'How to deal wisely and effectively with this 
age-long problem has been the puzzle of the Christian mis- 
sionary ever since Christian missions were first founded. 
We ourselves have not yet found the way. If we have 
erred, as I think we have, it has been on the side of a lack 
of discipline. If we have seemed to be losing sight of the 
gravity of sexual immorality, it is because we have come to 
know that you cannot rate the offense there at the same 
estimate as in the Western world. I have often thought 
with contempt and scorn of the veneer that glosses over the 
uncleanness of our own countiy, and wondered what would 
happen to the self-righteous Westerner were he suddenly 
pressed into the social conditions of the Igorots."^ AVhile 

1 Article, "Sixteen Years in the Philippines," in the Sjnrit of Missions, 
March, 1918. 



THE SOCIAL AND MORPHINE EVILS 385 

there is much to regret in the social and industrial condi- 
tions of modem Japan, there is also much to encourage the 
hope that a better day is dawning. The forces of humanity 
and moral uplift have begun to operate, and they are yearly 
gaining in vigor and power. 

A word may be added in passing regarding the policy of 
segregating social vice, since the Japanese method has been 
recommended by many European and some American stu- 
dents of this problem who, despairing of eradicating the 
evil; argue that it is better to restrict it to a limited area 
where it can be isolated and watched, where only deliber- 
ately immoral men will seek it, and where women can be 
medically examined, than it is to have it scattered through 
a city to tempt young men and contaminate the neighbor- 
hoods of respectable famihes. 

The fact is, however, that ^'segregation'' fails to segregate. 
A typical woman of the class imder consideration likes free- 
dom as well as other people and will operate at large as 
long as she can. When the police interfere, she will at- 
tempt to bribe them; and the experience of a thousand 
cities proves that she can usually succeed in doing so. 
Only the most hardened and reckless cases, or the most 
pitifully ignorant ones, will voluntarily become virtual 
prisoners in a segregated district. Proof of this appears 
in the great number of immoral wom.en outside of these dis- 
tricts in Japan and in Western cities which have adopted 
the policy of segregation, no small part of their vice being 
"out of bounds." 

Segregation, too, places the stamp of legal approval upon 
licentiousness as a recognized business, and fosters police 
corruption, for not only will women pay the police to keep 
out but brothel-keepers will pay to have them kept in. 
The American Social Hygiene Association, after an exhaus- 
tive investigation of the subject in Europe and America, 
declares that segregation increases the demand for prosti- 
tutes, enlarges the supply, is a continuous advertisement of 
vice, creates an illegally privileged class, provides a meeting- 
place for the idle and vicious, increases illegal traffic in 
liquor, and is the most prolific cause of public contamination. 



386 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

The policy of licensing and regulating vice is an equally- 
flat failure. Immoral women are as averse to public regis- 
tration and its accompanying exactions as they are to 
segregation, and most of them succeed in avoiding it. 
Doctor Abraham Flexner, of New York, a recognized au- 
thority, says that '^nowhere is more than an unimportant 
fraction registered. ... Time was when regulation pre- 
vailed throughout almost the whole of Europe. It has now 
died out in Great Britain, Holland, Denmark, Norway, and 
Switzerland, excepting only the city of Geneva. The sys- 
tem is on its last legs in France, Belgium, Germany, Austria- 
Hungaiy, Sweden, and Italy. In only two towns, Ham- 
burg and Budapest, do the municipal authorities as a whole 
any longer tenaciously cling to it. When we are told that 
regulation is practised in Europe, we may confidently reply 
that the system has died out in many countries, and is 
moribund almost everywhere else."^ 

As for the much- vaunted medical inspection. Doctor Flex- 
ner declares that "it is a farce, and that there is not the 
least doubt that it spreads more disease than it discovers.'^ 

The whole method of dealing with the social evil by 
government licensure and regulation is inherently and 
thoroughly unsound in theory and a total failure in practice. 
There is no half-way ground in this matter. The only right 
way to handle it is to regard it as a sin and crime, to be 
treated as burglary and murder are treated — something 
always and everywhere and in all circumstances radically 
wrong, and to be fought as such wherever and whenever it 
is found. Compromise of any kind is not only futile as a 
remedial measure but it actually makes a bad matter 
worse. 

And how, one may wonderingly ask, and in the name of 
all justice, fairness, and common sense, is vice to be effec- 
tively segregated or regulated when only one party to it, 
the woman, is dealt with, and the other party, the man, 
is left to roam at will? Society is in far greater danger 
from licentious men, the majority of whom are also diseased, 

* Article in Social Hygiene, December, 1914. 



THE SOCIAL AND MORPHINE EVILS 387 

than it is from fallen women^ who are usually the victims 
of men. Let those who imagine that the social evil can be 
extirpated; or reduced to a minimum^ by forcing a com- 
parative handful of pitifully forlorn girls to live in a segre- 
gated quarter^ or to go to a pohce station and publicly 
register and take out licenses — ^let them, I say, demand 
that the far greater number of men who exploit or patronize 
them be compelled to submit to the same treatment or go 
to jail. We shall never get anywhere in dealing with the 
social evil until we realize that it is not so much a woman 
problem as it is a man problem. 

The morphine evil presents another serious question. 
The world followed with admiration the splendid effort 
which the Chinese made in recent years to extirpate the 
opium vice — the curse of China. Under the agreement 
with the British Government in 1907, the exportation of 
East Indian opium to China was to be reduced at the rate 
of 5,100 chests a year, provided the Chinese made propor- 
tionate reduction in the production of native opium, the 
traffic to cease altogether in ten years. The Anglo-Chinese 
treaty of 1911 supplemented this by forbidding the ship- 
ment of opium into any province which could show that it 
was not raising any domestic opium. The ten-year period 
for the countiy as a whole expired March 31, 1917, after 
which the legal prohibition became absolute. The law, 
like laws against vicious habits in other countries, was en- 
forced with varying degrees of strictness. For a time 
opium-smoking appeared to be eliminated. Violations were 
probably no more com,mon than violations of prohibitory 
liquor laws in the ^^dry'' States of America, and for a time 
were quite as sternly punished, except in the foreign con- 
cessions in the treaty ports, where the Chinese magistrates 
had no jurisdiction. Tang Shao Yi said in 1914 that Chinese 
officials had closed all the opium- joints in the Chinese city, 
but that in the foreign settlements joints were wide open 
and selling $600,000 worth of opium a week. 

Then the evil began to reassert itself. The poppy was 



388 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

again cultivated, at first in secluded places in the mountain 
districts, and then more openly in some of the interior prov- 
inces like Shensi and Kwei-chou; the military governor of 
the former province openly declaring that opium-growing 
was necessaiy for revenue. The government had agreed 
to take over the 1,700 chests of East Indian opium held by 
the Opium Combine in Shanghai and Hongkong, paying 
$15,000,000 in government ten-year bonds. The govern- 
ment was then to sell the opium at an advanced price to a 
s}Tidicate, which was to dispose of it for medicinal purposes 
at a still higher rate — considerably higher. Officials were 
well represented in the syndicate, and a rather loose inter- 
pretation was placed upon the word "medicinal." The dis- 
organized condition of the country encouraged laxity and 
diminished the danger of prosecution. However, men of 
character and intelligence, both Chinese and foreign, were 
alert to the peril, and made resolute efforts to avert it. If 
the evil could have been narrowed down to the smoking of 
opium, it probably could have been abated, in large part, 
at least, for the law had the backing of a strong public 
sentiment, and of the whole Christian element in the Chinese 
churches and the missionary body. Great satisfaction was 
expressed when, in November, 1918, the Chinese legation 
in Washington announced that President Hsu Shih-chang 
had ordered the burning of the opium which the Chinese 
Government had purchased from the foreign merchants in 
Shanghai. 

Unhappily, when evil appetite is repressed at one point 
it is apt to break out at another, and as the use of opium de- 
creased, the use of its alkaloid, morphine, increased. The 
Chinese Government discerned the danger, and in 1903 
imposed a tax that was intended to be prohibitive, and was 
so as far as legitimate trade was concerned. Nevertheless, 
morphine was sold in constantly enlarging quantities. The 
Chinese authorities are not ignorant of this evasion of the 
law, but their difiiculties are great. If smugglers only had 
to be dealt with, the injury would be comparatively small, 
for the drug would not be common enough to be accessible 



THE SOCIAL AND MORPHINE EVILS 389 

except to the most confirmed and determined moi-phine 
fiends. Chinese dealers, too, can be and are severely pun- 
ished. The mischief is done by foreigners, chiefly Japanese. 
In the year 1914 Japan imported morphine at the rate of 
over a ton a month, buying most of it from one firm in 
London, and two firms in Edinburgh, and the drug con- 
tinues to pour in at a startling rate. What are the Japa- 
nese doing with all this morphine? They use very httle 
of it themselves, only a comparatively small quantity for 
medicinal purposes, other uses of the drug being prohibited 
by Japanese law. Let any one go into the villages of northern 
China and Manchuria and he will quickly learn what the 
Japanese are doing with such vast quantities of morphine. 
He will find hundreds of Japanese peddlers selling it to the 
natives under various labels: '^ white powder," "soothing 
stuff," "dreamland ehxir," and in some instances the real 
name — ^morphine. Most of it comes in through the post. 
Several foreign governments, including Japan, mamtain 
their own post-offices in China. The Chinese authorities 
have no control over them or their mail and merchandise 
unless a letter or package is remailed at a native office. A 
Japanese trader can therefore send morphine through any 
of the numerous Japanese post-offices. The Chinese Gov- 
ernment is not permitted to examine the packages, and the 
local Japanese obtain them direct. The Chinese magis- 
trates are helpless, as they dare not interfere with the 
Japanese. 

The London Lancet and The Medical Record have given 
currency to a paper read before a conference of the National 
Medical Association of China in Januar}^, 1917, by G. L. 
Tuck, M.D., whose Chinese name is Wu Lien-teh, in which 
he says: "Almost every Japanese drug dealer or peddler 
in Manchuria sells it in one form or another, and does so 
with impunity, because no Japanese can be arrested with- 
out complaint being first lodged at the consulate. From 
these Japanese agents and subagents, the drug may be 
passed on to disreputable Chinese who frequent the coolie 
depots, and inject a solution, usually very dirty, with a 



390 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

hypodermic syringe which may be made of glass, metal, 
or even bamboo. Rigorous imprisonment for two years is 
a common sentence for Chinese found with morphine in 
their possession, but the principal culprits often escape 
punishment." Doctor Wu Lien-teh further stated that 
during his five years' residence in Manchuria he saw ter- 
rible havoc wrought upon the population by this drug; that 
thousands of poor people die in the large cities during the 
winter months, partly from cold but principally from in- 
ability to work on account of their morphine habits; that 
the evil appears to be spreading; and that enormous profits 
are made by the dealers in this illicit trade, the profits made 
on six and a quarter tons by the dealers in China in 1913 
amounting to about $4,200,000. 

The situation is serious also in Korea. Most of the Ko- 
reans are not sensitive about it, but the more enhghtened 
are, and every real friend of the people is distressed by it. 
The traffic is contrary to Japanese law, but it is conducted 
more or less openly by Japanese, particularly in the coun- 
tiy districts, where peddlers spread the morphine and opium 
habit among multitudes of Koreans. The Japanese strictly 
enforce their law in Japan, and magistrates in Korea will 
usually punish a trafficker if the case is brought so directly 
to their notice that they cannot escape responsibility; but 
they will seldom press matters unless compelled to do so, 
and the effort to make them is apt to be unpleasant. Thou- 
sands of Koreans are learning the use of the morphine 
syringe from these Japanese itinerant venders, and as they 
are like children in the indulgence of their appetites, as un- 
sophisticated as Africans and American Indians are with 
liquor, the evil has grown to serious proportions. Every 
hospital in Korea now has to treat opium and morphine 
fiends. Opium-smoking was brought to Korea by the Chi- 
nese long ago, but the evil has never been so great as it is 
now. Protests of missionaries are beginning to make some 
impression, but the demoralization of Koreans continues. 

It would be a great boon to the numerous but politically 
weak peoples of the mainland if the governments of Great 



THE SOCIAL AND MORPHINE EVILS 391 

Britain and Japan would adopt joint measures to put an 
end to this demoralizing traffic. Official reports show that 
firms in Great Britain exported seven and a half tons of 
moiphine in 1912^ eleven and a half tons in 1913, fourteen 
tons in 1914, and that by 1916 the annual export had reached 
sixteen tons. Germany exported one and three-eighths 
tons in 1913, but this small supply was cut off by the out- 
break of the war in the following year. Responsibihty un- 
der present conditions Hes heavily upon Japan and Great 
Britain. Exports from Great Britain have fallen off con- 
siderably in recent years, but the Edinburgh Anti-Opium 
Committee, of which Lord Polwarth is president, reported 
in April, 1917, that ^^ allowing half a grain per injection, 
enough has been provided to ding daily 500,000 persons," 
and that ^^it is safe to say that the amount supplied from 
Britain annually is sufficient to demoralize a milHon of 
Chinese.'^ Steady pressure from the Anti-Opium Com- 
mittee finally resulted in the following announcement in 
the House of Commons, October 23, 1917, in answer to a 
question by Sir WiUiam J. Collins, M. P.: ^'Licenses to ex- 
port morphia or cocaine from this country to Japan are not 
granted unless they are accompanied by certificates ob- 
tained from the Japanese Home Office or from the Japanese 
authorities of the Kwantung Leased Territor}^, to the effect 
that the morphia or cocaine is for actual consumption in 
Japan or in Dairen and its vicinity, and is for medical pur- 
poses only. A notice to this effect was pubHshed in the 
Board of Trade Journal on 11th October, after communica- 
tion with the Japanese Government." 

It was also stated that the Japanese Government had 
undertaken to prevent the smuggling of the drugs. It was 
not easy for the British Government to press the matter 
against an ally in a great war. But the war is now over. 
Moreover, something could be done at home. Manufac- 
ture as well as sale should be regulated. As long as three 
British firms are allowed to produce so much more of the 
drug than is required for legitimate medicinal purposes, 
the evil is likely to continue. Morphine, being a white, 



392 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

light, odorless, and highly concentrated powder, can be 
smuggled out of a country with comparative ease. At any 
rate, it is fair to ask what becomes of the sui-plus British 
product. Presumably the manufacturers do not make 
more than they can sell, and it is quite safe to say that the 
surplus finds its way via Japan to Korea and China. 



CHAPTER XXV 
JAPAN AND AMERICA 

Relations between Japan and the United States began 
most auspiciously. I need not repeat the familiar story of 
the famous expedition which President Millard Fillmore 
sent to Japan in 1852 and 1853 under that sailor-diplomat, 
Commodore Matthew C. Perry. While it consisted of naval 
vessels whose saluting guns at first aroused the wildest ex- 
citement and alarm among the then untutored Japanese, the 
object of the expedition was distinctively peaceful in pur- 
pose, and it issued in peaceful conclusions. Americans are 
justly proud that Japan's first treaty with a Western nation 
was the treaty of March 31, 1854, with the United States. 

Happy was it also for relations of good-will that the first 
American Minister to Japan was Townsend Harris — ^mer- 
chant, educator, and philanthropist as well as diplomat, 
who was appointed Consul-General in 1855, and commis- 
sioned as Minister upon the ratification of the treaty of 
1858, and who brought to his difficult and dehcate task a 
real genius for dealing with Asiatic peoples. His courage 
in remaining at his post in a time of danger when other 
foreigners fled, his genuine faith in the Japanese, and his 
tactful determination to win their confidence gave him a 
prestige in Japan which still abides. It enabled him, in 
1858, to secure a commercial treaty, and January 1, 1859, 
the opening of three treaty ports in which foreigners could 
reside. The Honorable John W. Foster said, in his history 
of American Diplomacy in the Orient, that while the genius 
of Perry had imbarred the gate of the Island Empire and 
left it ajar, it was the skill of Harris which threw it open to 
the commercial enterprise of the world; that he reflected 
great honor upon his country and justly deserves to rank 
among the first diplomats of the world, if such rank is 
measured by accomplishment. 



394 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

This good beginning was followed by what William H. 
Seward called ''the tutorship of the United States in Japan," 
''based on deeper and broader principles of philanthropy 
than have hitherto been practised in the intercourse of 
nations." Noble was the group of men and women from 
America who laid broad and deep the foundations of progress 
and friendship — Hepburn, Brown, Verbeck, Murray, and 
others of like character and devotion, whose special work 
will be discussed in a later chapter. 

All went smoothly in the relations of the two countries 
until comparatively recent years, when the Japanese began 
to emigrate. In this era of easy international travel most 
nations have overflowed their boundaries and subjects of 
the more alert and ambitious ones have gone to many differ- 
ent lands. The Japanese lived a secluded life until a few 
decades ago; but when their isolation ceased, enterprising 
Japanese began to roam afar. The pressure of expanding 
population in a limited territory added strong incentive. 
A generation ago there were not more than 20,000 Japa- 
nese outside of Japan, and most of them were in Korea. 
In 1918 the Department of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo re- 
ported that the number of Japanese in other lands was 
640,421, distributed as follows: Manchuria, 310,158; China 
proper, 33,668; Southern Asia and Oceanica, 29,627; 
Europe, 1,464; Russia in Asia, 9,717; Canada, 13,823; 
Hawaiian Islands, 101,645; United States, 112,293; Mexico, 
1,169; South America, 26,857. Nearly half the pop- 
ulation of the Hawaiian Islands is Japanese — 101,645 out 
of 219,940. 

These emigrants met with varying degrees of welcome 
in the countries in which they settled. Industrious and 
self-reliant, they had no difficulty in gaining a foothold; 
but while their strong quahties were ever}^where recognized, 
they were seldom popular. For that matter, are European 
and American colonies in Asia popular? Differences in 
race, language, religion, and social customs are not con- 
ducive to sympathetic personal relations anywhere. 

In the United States the strain became acute. Some 



JAPAN AND AMERICA 395 

Americans who had regarded a Japanese in Japan as a 
picturesquely attractive figure changed their minds when 
he settled next door with his different scale of living and 
standards of conduct. Japanese students, merchants, and 
professional men have aroused no particular antagonism in 
Ajnerica, and they freely reside where they please. In 
some citieS; notably New York, Japanese of these types are 
held in high esteem. But 95 per cent of the Japanese in 
CaUfornia are peasant farmers, fruit-raisers, truck-garden- 
ers, and laborers, only 5 per cent being classed as officials, 
students, and professional men.^ Willing to work longer 
hours than white men, and to accept lower wages, their 
successful competition speedily excites the wrath and race 
prejudice of their American neighbors. Social ostracism 
intensifies the natural disposition of men to associate with 
their own kind, and so the Japanese perforce segregate 
themselves in groups which are distinct from the rest of the 
population. These groups are of varying sizes. Of the 
60,000 Japanese now in California, 20,000 are in Los Angeles 
and its vicinity, 8,000 in and around San Francisco, 3,000 
in Oakland and Alameda Count}^, and the remaining 29,000 
are in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, in and around 
Stockton, in Fresno County, and other places adjacent to 
agricultural regions.^ 

The story of the agitation on the Pacific coast is not 
pleasant reading. Angry recriminations, mob violence, 
inimical legislation, and indignant protests have marked the 
course of events. A detailed account would he beyond the 
scope of this volume. Abundant material is available for 
the reader in numerous books and magazine articles.^ 
Suffice it here to indicate certain facts and conclusions that 
impress me as essential to an understanding of the problem : 

* Special State Investigalion, cited by Gulick and Scherer. 

2 Acting Consul-General Yamazaki, San Francisco, 1916. 

' The following are worthy of special mention : The Japanese Crisis, by 
James A. B. Scherer; The Japanese Problem in the United States, by H. A. 
Wilhs; Japanese Expansion and American Policies, by J. F. Abbott; Asia at 
the Door, by K. K. Kawakami; and The American- Japanese Problem and 
America and the Orient, both by Sidney L. Gulick. 



396 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

First. Unrestricted immigration and landownership by 
Asiatics who enter into industrial competition with Ameri- 
cans, who represent lower standards of living, and who 
cannot or will not assimilate with them, is clearly imprac- 
ticable. It is not a question of equality or brotherhood, 
but of economic and social adjustments which are insoluble 
under present conditions. 

Second. The Japanese Government does not ask for 
such unrestricted immigration and landownership. It would 
rather have its surplus laboring population go to Korea, 
Formosa, and China, where every additional Japanese 
helps to strengthen Japanese interests. The emigrants to 
America are not only lost to the nation, except for the money 
that they send back to their relatives, but the majority of 
them are of a grade which high-class Japanese do not care 
to have considered as representative of their people. The 
business and professional men in such cities as New York 
and Washington are a fine type of intelligent and cultured 
Japanese; but of the mass of laborers Marquis Okuma 
frankly said: '^We are not proud of the Japanese emigrants 
who go to America. They are cooHes. They do not un- 
derstand what trouble they have been giving to the Japa- 
nese nation by their presence in America. Somebody in 
Japan set the bad example of conducting an emigration 
business. . . . The emigration question, at all events, 
should be treated merely as an emigration question, and 
not as one either political or diplomatic.''^ 

The Osaka Mainichi is equally outspoken. Commenting 
on the treaty of February 11, 1911, the editor wrote: "It 
is desirable to eliminate emigration not only from the 
treaty but to prevent emigration to America. Emigration 
is not a thing to be looked upon with favor. It means 
nothing but the exportation of coolies. It parades the 
lowest mass of the Japanese people in foreign countries, 
and furnishes the ground for various international em- 
broglios. . . . Because emigration has been conducted as 
a business, horrible crimes have been disclosed here and 

^ Quoted in The Oriental Review, April 10, 1911. 



JAPAN AND AMERICA 397 

there, impairing Japan's fair name. The exportation of 
coolies is a disgrace to the nation/' 

Third, What, then, does the Japanese Government want ? 
Just this and nothing more: that American laws shall not 
discriminate against Japanese as compared with immigrants 
of other nationaHties. No self-respecting government can 
acquiesce in having its subjects singled out for exclusion 
from privileges that are freely granted to subjects of other 
governments. "The real question at issue therefore is be- 
tween a discriminator}^ and a non-discriminatory ahen land 
law.'' Japan is perfectly willing to have her people in the 
United States treated in the same way as other aliens are 
treated. It is the differential treatment that is objectiona- 
ble. Marquis Okuma said this in so many words in reply 
to a question by a representative of the New York Times : 
"If you ask me what we want, then I must say frankly 
that we want equal treatment with the European nations. 
We want you to cease to exercise racial discrimination."^ 
"Racial discrimination" is precisely what America is exer- 
cising now. Laws bear against the Japanese and Chinese 
which do not bear against peoples of many other nation- 
alities. Courts naturalize as American citizens all comers 
from Europe and South America, and also Turks, Hindus, 
Persians, Mexicans and Hottentots — ^but not Japanese or 
Chinese. Can we wonder that these high-spirited people 
are deeply wounded when we exclude them from those 
privileges that we readily grant to inmiigrants of inferior 
type? Only a very few of the Japanese would apply for 
naturaHzation if the laws permitted them to do so; for 
most of them do not want to change their allegiance. But 
their inclusion in the permissive law which opens the door 
to other races would alter what Doctor Sidney L. Gulick 
has well called "the entire psychological attitude" of the 
Japanese toward us. Inomigration could be and should be 
handled as a separate problem. The Japanese, as already 
intimated, ask nothing more here than America freely ac- 
cords to Tartars and Zulus. 

1 Interview in the New York Times, June 18, 1916. 



398 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Fourth. Popular feeling lays all the blame upon labor- 
unions; but Doctor James A. B. Scherer, after seven years' 
study of this question in California, said, what will be news 
to most people in the eastern section of the United States, 
that the labor-unions in California as well as the Japanese 
Government would be entirely satisfied with a law excluding 
all aliens from landownership, but that the effort to pass 
such a law has been blocked by banks, ti-ust companies, 
chambers of commerce, and other large business interests 
which fear that it would prevent the investment of foreign 
capital in the State. He deplores the fact that a grave 
international issue is thus subordinated to commercial in- 
terests which in his opinion would not be so seriously in- 
jured as they imagine.^ 

Fifth. There is now no danger whatever of a deluge of 
Japanese immigration. By the '^ Gentlemen ^s Agreement" 
of November, 1907, Japan consented to refuse passports 
to coolies who desire to go to the United States. The Japa- 
nese Ambassador in Washington made the following decla- 
ration in signing the treaty of Februaiy 21, 1911: ''In 
proceeding this day to the signature of the treaty of com- 
merce and navigation, . . . the undersigned has the honor 
to declare that the Imperial Japanese Government are fully 
prepared to maintain with equal effectiveness the limitation 
and control which they have for the past three years exer- 
cised in regulation of the laborers to the United States. '^ 
Japan has scrupulously kept this agreement. There has 
been no emigration of laboring men to the United States 
for years, and the total Japanese population in this coun- 
tiy is steadily decreasing. In a recent period of seven 
years 15,139 more Japanese men left America than ar- 
rived. When some overzealous members of Congress tried 
to have a clause inserted in the Burnett Bill, in 1916, which 
would give legal recognition to the ''Gentlemen's Agree- 
ment," Japan vigorously protested. It would keep its 
coolies out of its own volition, but it would not submit to 
an order to do so. The Premier 'of Japan, then Marquis 

^ The Japanese Crisis, pp. 97-102, and 110. 



JAPAN AND AMERICA 399 

Okuma, characterized "the indirect reference to Japan in 
the Burnett Bill as insulting/' and declared: ''It is time 
for the people of the United States to wake up to a sense of 
justice and throw over racial prejudice."^ The objection- 
able clause in the bill was finally dropped, but the discus- 
sion left an unpleasant memory. 

Sixth. Wlien a State fails to give proper protection to 
aliens residing within its borders or passes a law which 
contravenes rights that are guaranteed to them by treaty, 
it will not do for the federal government to answer just 
protests by pleading that it cannot coerce a sovereign State 
in such matters. Either the United States form a nation 
or they do not. If they do, the national government may 
be justly held responsible when its citizens violate treaties 
which it has made with other nations. If we are not a 
nation, then the offended government has the right to deal 
directly with the particular State which committed or con- 
doned the offense. America itself has acted on this prin- 
ciple with Japan. In 1863, the Daimyo of Choshu fired 
on some American, French, and Dutch merchant vessels 
which were passing the Strait of Shimonoseki. When their 
governments demanded his punishment, the Japanese Gov- 
ernment replied that it had no control over the local au- 
thorities in such matters. The foreign governments then 
declared that if the government of Japan could not deal 
with the Daimyo, they could and would. The result was 
that a squadron of American, French, Dutch, and British 
warships bombarded the Daimyo's forts, completely de- 
molished them, and compelled the payment of an indenmity 
of $3,000,000. The United States ultimately returned its 
share; but the humiliating fact of pimishment remained. 
Japanese memory is not short, and when Japan is told by 
the government of the United States that it cannot inter- 
fere with the State of California, the Japanese feel that they 
have a historical precedent, to which we ourselves have 
been a party, for saying that if the federal government 
cannot control its constituent parts, the Japanese Govern- 

1 The New York Times, June 18, 1916. 



400 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

merit may proceed to do so. If our laws do not permit our 
federal government to prevent one or more of its consti- 
tuent States from embroiling the whole country with other 
countries, a law authorizing it to do so should be enacted 
without further delay. The American Bar Association has 
endorsed a bill to empower the federal government to deal 
directly in all criminal cases iii which ahens are involved. 
It ought to be passed. 

Seventh. This controversy has brought severer strain 
upon our relations with Japan than the American people 
reahze. The Japanese do not conceal their irritation and 
resentment. " Any attempt to force the issue at the present 
time may lead to very undesirable results/' significantly 
remarked one of America's best friends in Japan, Marquis 
Okuma, in the interview already referred to. In 1914 
Naoichi Masaoka published, under the title Japan to 
America a symposium by tliirty-five political leaders and 
representative citizens of Japan on the relations between 
Japan and the United States. The volume abounds in 
warmly appreciative references to the historical friendship 
of the Japanese toward America, and the sincere desire of 
the writers that it should continue unbroken; but through- 
out there is a distinct intimation that Japan is rankling 
under a sense of deep injustice, and that, if rehef is not af- 
forded, it will not be the fault of Japan if trouble shall 
ensue. A characteristic utterance is that of Professor 
Shigeo Suyehiro, professor in the law school of the Kyoto 
Imperial University: '^In recent years, America has been 
treating us in a way rather unpleasant to us. In more than 
one instance it was only with a lingering sense of gratitude 
for her past friendship that we endured what we could not 
otherwise have endured. ... If she rejects it [our claim 
for justice] I am afraid that the day will come when our 
friendship toward her shall cease.'' ^ Even the kindly 
Baron Ei-ichi Shibusawa writes: "These things [anti- 
Japanese legislation] cause us anxiety. . . . There will 
not be any change in our friendship toward America; but 

1 Japan to America, pp. 57 and 61. 



JAPAN AND AMERICA 401 

the masses of the people may become enraged if the strained 
relations continue long/'^ And after his return to Japan 
from his visit to the United States in 1916, he sadly said: 
"Owing to a lack of thorough understanding on both sides 
of the Pacific, the two nations are dangerously drifting 
apart.' '2 

Baron Shibusawa^s fear that "the masses of the people 
may become enraged'' has come perilously near fulfilment. 
Many of the newspapers in Japan have been violent in 
their expressions of popular indignation, and have demanded 
summary measures with a vehemence that the heads of the 
government may not always be able to restrain. It cannot 
be denied that a feehng exists in Japan which might at any 
moment be fanned into a flame of national passion if certain 
legislative bills were to be passed, or if some irresponsible 
individual Japanese on the Pacific coast were to commit a 
crime, which would be deplored by every high-minded Japa- 
nese, but which might excite an American mob to lynch- 
law methods against not only the criminal but other Japa- 
nese in the community concerned. "There is," observes 
Mr. T. P. O'Connor, "in individual as well as in national 
character, one type which is always liable to give us some 
unpleasant surprises. You meet a man or a woman who 
is apparently soft, yielding, and self-controlled. You may 
try them with a certain want of consideration for their 
feelings; and, finding that you are met with nothing but the 
same agreeable smile and unquestioning docility, you rush 
to the conclusion that they are incapable of a moment of 
fierce anger or volcanic passion. But you find yourself 
suddenly and imexpectedly awakened. AVhat you have not 
realized is that what you have said or done has been pro- 
foundly resented, and that, though the resentment has not 
been expressed, it has deepened in consequence; and that 
some fine day it bursts forth with all the rage and devasta- 
tion of a volcano. . . . And when a broad-minded Japa- 
nese discusses with you, in the confidence of private conver- 
sation, the character of his people, this is also the view he 

1 Ihid., pp. 32 and 33. « The New York Times, April 23, 1916. 



402 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

takes. Marquis Okuma, for instance, discussing this very- 
question with the author, summed up the character of his 
people in these words: ^The Japanese are not cruel but 
they are turbulent, vindictive and irascible'; a portrait 
which, though terse, is sufficient to reveal to Europeans 
how little they have grasped the depths in Japanese life.'' 
Doctor Scherer, who quotes this opinion, adds: ^'This fact 
of the Japanese temperament is the focal point of impor- 
tance in this whole discussion. All Europeans or Americans 
that have lived among Japanese and had even a modicum 
of sympathetic discernment will agree with Mr. O'Connor."^ 
It is not cowardice but justice and common sense for patri- 
otic Americans to do everything in their power to prevent 
mobs and demagogues from exasperating beyond endur- 
ance a proud and sensitive people who ought to be our 
friends. 

For years there was a belief in Europe and the Far East 
that war between the United States and Japan was proba- 
ble, and it still persists in some quarters. Some of the 
prophecies belong to the category of thoughts that are 
fathered by a wish. German diplomacy in 1914 confidently 
counted upon such a war. Those who fear and dislike the 
Japanese are eager to see some nation fight her, and have 
selected America as the one which they would like to have 
undertake the task. Men who have a financial interest in 
promoting war scares and poHticians who are looking for 
opportunities to attract attention to themselves '^ patrioti- 
cally" declaim about "the Japanese peril." Strongly as 
every sane man must deplore agitation of this sort, it would 
be foolish to shut our eyes to its possibilities of mischief. 
Wars are not always caused by rational motives. The ques- 
tions in dispute between Japan and America are susceptible 
of solution by peaceful methods, but disputes between na- 
tions easily become complicated by jealousies and suspicions 
until that vaguely intangible but tremendously potent force 
called "national honor" becomes involved on one or both 
sides, and then reason disappears in the flaming fires of 

1 Tfie Japanese Crisis, pp. 54-56. 



JAPAN AND AMERICA 403 

passion. Perhaps we should not attach conclusive weight 
to the public utterances of government officials in either 
country. This is not because cabinet ministers and diplo- 
matic representatives do not know the factS; but because 
their position compels them to put forth reassuring senti- 
ments whether they accord with the facts or not. He must 
be a credulous student of international relations who umo- 
cently imagines that an ambassador or a minister of state 
would prematurely precipitate hostilities by publicly saying 
that war was in prospect. The history of diplomatic rela- 
tions shows that down to the firing of the first gun^ official 
declarations abound in high-sounding sentences about "the 
friendly intentions of my Government and the distinguished 
consideration which the courteous proposal of Your Excel- 
lenc3^^s note will promptly receive/^ etc. We must there- 
fore look for the broad underlying facts of the situation 
which make for war or peace. 

Beginning with our own countr}'-; even the critics of the 
United States usually credit us with peaceful intentions 
toward Japan. Americans are eager to extend their in- 
fluence in the Pacific seaS; but they are after dollars, not 
territory. The Philippines came into their possession as 
an imforeseen incident in a war with Spain, and were in no 
sense either the object or the occasion of the war. In spite 
of a certain swagger and high temper, the American people 
are not disposed to rush into actual hostilities with any 
nation, as the long-drawn out negotiations with Mexico and 
Germany proved. Congressman Richmond Pearson Hob- 
son talked himself hoarse in warning his countr}^men of the 
dire consequences to which they were exposed from Japa- 
nese designs;^ but the country Hstened with languid amuse- 
ment, because it did not intend to make war on Japan, and 
believed that Japan did not intend to make w^ar on us. 
The average American is firmly convinced that such a con- 
ffict could bring absolutely nothing that we want, but only 
things that we do not want. I venture the assertion that 

^ CJ. his article in The Cosmopolitan for May, 1908, and similar articles in 
other magazines. 



404 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

no other nation in the world is less likely to make war upon 
Japan. American ambitions in the Far East are not mili- 
tary. A suggestion that any considerable portion of re- 
spectable Americans cherish hostile sentiments against the 
Japanese would be greeted with derision anywhere in the 
United States; except possibly in a few local communities 
on the Pacific coast. The feeling of the American people 
as a whole is one of real friendliness toward Japan. 

Nor does Japan want war with the United States. She 
wishes to pay off her heavy debts, strengthen her general 
financial position, and develop her internal manufactures 
and foreign trade. Friendly America is valuable to her as 
a source of supplies for raw material and a profitable market 
for manufactured goods. Nearly all of Japan's exported 
tea is sold in America, 70 per cent of her raw and manufac- 
tured silk and an important part of other products. Alto- 
gether more than one-third of Japan's exports go to the 
United States. She buys from us, too, many supplies that 
she requires. I have written in another chapter of the large 
development of her cotton-manufactures, and she depends 
upon the United States for the best grade of raw cotton. 
Her soldiers in the Russia-Japan War ate Chicago beef and 
bread made from American flour. Hostilities with America 
would destroy this trade, for a time at least, and might result 
in conditions which would prevent a resumption of it on the 
scale that it is now attaining. Therefore Japan, hke Eng- 
land, desires a peace that will leave her mercantile marine 
an undisturbed ocean pathway. Nor does Japan overlook 
the fact that the United States is now the greatest reservoir 
of capital in the world. Japan needs money. Europe, 
impoverished and exhausted by war, cannot supply it; 
America can. 

Japan values, too, her alHance with Great Britain. It is 
her largest asset to-day in international affairs. Would 
Great Britain support her in a war with America? Japan 
knows quite well that she would not, and that it would be 
highly imprudent to run the risk of alienating such an in- 
valuable ally. 



JAPAN AND AMERICA 405 

Moreover, Japan needs time and freedom for matters 
that engage her attention nearer home. Korea, Formosa, 
and China present problems and anxieties that the Japa- 
nese cannot ignore, and that are formidable enough to 
absorb all their energies. They know that they have for- 
midable competitors in several European Powers, that it 
will be no easy task to bring the millions of Koreans into a 
state of mind that will keep them quiet in the event of an- 
other war, and that the Chinese are increasingly jealous 
of them. The Japanese well understand that in their 
struggle with Russia they were victorious by a very narrow 
margin; that President Roosevelt's intervention brought 
peace just when they had reached their maximum of suc- 
cess; and that they had a powerful support in the sym- 
pathy of most of the Western nations which they probably 
would not have again, for Japan is less popular than she 
was in 1905. Having attained her present political ambi- 
tion, Japan is not inclined to jeopardize it unnecessarily by 
the uncertainties of another war. Military difficulties, too, 
should not be left out of account. Grant that Japan, which 
can keep her movements secret as America can not, could 
land an army on our Pacific coast before our government 
could mobilize either a fleet or a military force to prevent 
it. How could Japan feed and maintain that army at fight- 
ing size after it got there? The best army in the world, 
separated from its base of supplies by 4,500 miles of ocean, 
would be in a plight to which such wise generals as the 
Japanese, daring as they are, would be slow to subject them- 
selves. 

Americans finally came to the conclusion that they ought 
to have the Hawaiian Islands, and it would not be surprising 
if in time the Japanese come to feel that, for similar reasons, 
they ought to have the PhiHppines. But the conditions are 
hardly parallel, for the Hawaiian Islands did not belong to 
another friendly nation, and the ruling class was composed 
of men of American blood and speech who had been seeking 
annexation for many years. Whatever deeper causes might 
have led to annexation, the immediate cause was pressure 



406 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

from the i>-;laiids themselves, to which our government; 
after much hesitation, finally yielded. The Philippine 
Islands are alien to Japan in both government and people, 
and could only be taken by force in a great war. Japan 
has no notion of taking them in that way. It is true that 
the Philippines are so close to Japan that the Japanese 
might plead almost as vital an interest in them as Ameri- 
cans plead in the West Indies. It is also true that Japan 
could take them with ease at any time, for the American 
military^ and naval force in the archipelago is pathetically 
small for such a contingency. Thanks to republican insti- 
tutions, our government could not make the preparations 
which would be required to hold the archipelago against 
attack, without a publicity and duration of congressional 
debates which would advertise its purpose to the world 
months before adequate action could be taken. Meantime, 
Japan has the troops, the merchant ships available for 
transports, the naval vessels to escort them, and the ability 
to act with promptness and secrecy which would enable her 
to have 400,000 soldiers begin disembarkation in the Phil- 
ippines before the United States could even know anything 
about the expedition. If war should break out from other 
causes, doubtless the first act of Japan would be the occu- 
pation of the Philippines, just as her first act in the war with 
Russia was the occupation of Korea. Nor would the oc- 
cupation of the Haw^aiian Islands be a very difficult task, 
since 44 per cent of the population of the islands is now 
Japanese, including a large proportion of men and many 
veterans of the Russia-Japan War. But we are confident 
that Japan has no such intentions and that there will be 
no war if Americans keep their senses. 

The Japanese, in spite of their martial spirit, are not as 
eager to fight other nations as their critics are wont to allege. 
Japan has had comparatively few foreign wars. Indeed 
she had none at all between her invasion of Korea in the 
sixteenth century and her war wdth China at the end of 
the nineteenth. For the last three hundred years, during 
which Europe and America were repeatedly convulsed by 



JAPAN AND AMERICA 407 

bloody strife, Japan had no internal revolution of any im- 
portance, except the necessaiy conflict which resulted in 
the overthrow of the Shogun, the fall of feudalism, and the 
rise of modern Japan. Japan did not begin hostilities 
against Russia until she had been humihated and endangered 
and goaded for years in ways that no Western nation would 
have tolerated. Then Japan fought as a last resort after 
every other means had been exhausted. It would be ab- 
surd to represent the Japanese as a meek and gentle people. 
They have clearly shown their ability to take care of them- 
selves against all comers. When they did begin to fight 
Russia, they continued in a fashion which should make 
other nations think twice before pushing them into war 
again. We must remember, too, that their comparative 
isolation imtil recent years exempted them from most of 
the occasions for international comphcations to which the 
more closely related European peoples are constantly ex- 
posed. But making all due allowance for these considera- 
tions, the historic fact remains that the Japanese, with all 
their undoubted genius for war, have not shown a disposi- 
tion to go into it for light reasons. 

Fair-minded Americans can help to ward off difficulties 
by refusing to countenance some of the reports that are 
current. It is true that there are ominous facts that cannot 
be denied. But something depends upon the way that 
facts are manipulated; as in the alphabet, the same letters 
may spell either lived or devil. Many of the common 
allegations regarding Japan are not facts at all. It is pain- 
ful to note the creduHty with which the wildest statements 
are received. For example, in April, 1916, a metropolitan 
daily newspaper in the United States published an article 
whose truthfulness was said to be vouched for by "a rank- 
ing officer of the United States Army and a ranking officer 
of the United States Navy." This article, and the transla- 
tion of a Japanese book on which it was said to be based, 
declared that ^Hhere are 55,000 trained Japanese troops 
in the Philippines. '^ As a matter of fact, the War Depart- 
ment of the United States Government reDorted the total 



408 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Japanese population in the Philippines as less than 8,000. 
Another statement was : ^' There are in the Hawaiian Islands 
80,000 Japanese, all of whom have received army instruc- 
tion and they know their duty." The census then gave 
the total Japanese population in the Hawaiian Islands as 
89,715; of whom 24,881 were women, and 33,288 were chil- 
dren. "There are already 61,000 trained Japanese troops in 
California," said the article. There were not as many Japa- 
nese as that in California, including men, women and chil- 
dren. Emphasizing the danger that the Japanese would 
seize the Hawaiian Islands, the writer said: '^The Hawaiian 
Islands are only distant from San Francisco a few hours." 
Every schoolboy knows that the}^ are distant six days. And 
yet such preposterous allegations as these were solemnly 
printed and widely quoted as illustrative of our alleged peril 
from a Japanese invasion. Carl Crow, in his book entitled 
Japan and America — A Contrast, asserts that "Japan and 
the United States have nothing in common," and that the 
two countries are champions of such "opposing aims and in- 
terests" that "one of the two countries must recede from 
its present position." His closing chapter is entitled "Is 
Japan a Menace?" and he does not conceal his opinion that 
it is. He says that "the situation is now and has been for 
years very much the same as that which existed between 
England and Germany before the outbreak of the European 
War"; that "for every just cause of quarrel Germany had 
against England, Japan has half a dozen against us"; that 
in the Japanese vernacular there is ^^a steady outpouring 
of vilification and abuse of the United States"; and that 
"Japanese friendship for the United States exists only in 
the meaningless conventional phrases of diplomatic usage, 
in the propaganda of Japanese statesmen and American 
peace-at-any-price advocates, and in the wine-warmed 
sentiments of Japanese-American banquets."^ 

From such statements one turns with relief to the opm- 
ions of the American missionaries resident in Japan. They 
are in a position to know the attitude of the people. In 

1 Pp. 1, 4, 204, 301-302. 



JAPAN AND AMERICA 409 

1907; when sensational newspapers in America were fran- 
tically predicting a Japanese attack upon the United States, 
one hundred and ten missionaries in Japan^ representing 
more than twenty American Christian organizations; and 
residing in all sections of the Empire; published the follow- 
ing statement: '^As Americans residing in Japan; we feel 
bound to do all that is in our power to remove misimder- 
standings and suspicions which are intended to interrupt 
the long standing friendship between this nation and our 
own. HencC; we wish to bear testimony to the sobriety, 
sense of international justice; and freedom from aggressive 
designs exhibited by the great majority of the Japanese peo- 
ple; and to their faith in the traditional justice and equity 
of the United States. Moreover; we desire to place on 
record our profound appreciation of the kind treatment 
which we experience at the hands of both government and 
people; our belief that the alleged ^belligerent attitude' of 
the Japanese does not represent the real sentiments of the 
nation; and our ardent hope that local and spasmodic mis- 
understandings may not be allowed to affect in the sHght- 
est degree the natural and historic friendship of the two 
neighbors on opposite sides of the Pacific." 

At the semicentennial celebration of Protestant missions 
in Japan, October; 1909; a resolution was unanimously 
adopted which included the following sentences: ^^ While 
the Government and people of Japan have maintained a 
general attitude of cordial friendship for the United States, 
there has sprung up in some quarters of the latter coimtry 
a spirit of distrust of Japan. ... In this day of extensive 
and increasing commingling of races and civilizations; one 
of the prime problems is the maintenance of amicable inter- 
national relations. Essential to this are not only just and 
honest dealings between governments; but alsO; as far as 
practicable; the prevention as well as the removal of race 
jealousy and misunderstanding between the peoples them- 
selves. False or even exaggerated reports of the customs, 
beliefs or actions of other nations are fruitful causes of con- 
tempt, ill-will, animosity, and even war. If libel on an in- 



410 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

dividual is a grave offense^ how much more grave is libel 
on a nation?" 

With this irenic and sensible utterance of fair-minded 
and well-informed men, we may leave the matter for the 
present. I earnestly hope and pray that our country will 
have no trouble with Japan over the immigration question. 
If we do, America will not be free from blame. Our rela- 
tions with Japan have undoubtedly been in a sensitive state, 
but I believe with Doctor Scherer that '^our Japanese prob- 
lem will vanish into thin air if we substitute in dealing with 
it the spirit of the gentleman and statesman" for that of the 
sensational ''journalist."^ The Honorable Elihu Root gives 
this significant testimony: ''For many years I was very 
familiar with our own Department of Foreign Affairs. 
During that time there were many difficult, perplexing and 
doubtful questions to be discussed and settled between the 
United States and Japan. During all that period there 
never was a moment when the Government of Japan was 
not frank, sincere, friendty, and most solicitous not to en- 
large but to minimize and do away with all causes of con- 
troversy."^ 

American relations with Japan were placed on an easier 
footing during the visit of a Japanese commission headed 
by Viscount Kikujiro Ishii in 1917. He was hospitably 
welcomed everywhere, and he won golden opinions by his 
affable manners and tactful speeches. His brief address 
at the tomb of Washington, August 26, will live in literature. 
Of all the memorable words that have been spoken at that 
historic spot, none have been more truly eloquent in thought 
and expression. Americans will long cherish that address. 
Grant that it idealizes the attitude of Japan, and that at 
the very time that Viscount Ishii was in America some things 
were being done in the Far East that were not exactly in 
accord with his noble sentiments. Nevertheless, he spoke 
out of his own heart, and he gave voice to an element in 
Japan which ought to be better known and more fully 
trusted. 

» The Japanese Crisis, p. 63. ^ Address, October 21, 1917. 



JM'AxN AND AMERICA 411 

The conferences in Washington resulted in an agreement 
which was set forth in the Honorable Robert Lansing^s note 
of November 2, as Secretary of State, to Viscount Ishii, 
which included the following paragraph: 

"In order to silence mischievous reports that have from time to 
time been circulated, it is beheved by us that a public announcement 
once more of the desires and intentions shared by our two Govern- 
ments with regard to China is advisable. The Governments of the 
United States and Japan recognize that territorial propinquity cre- 
ates special relations between countries, and, consequently, the 
Government of the United States recognizes that Japan has special 
interests in China, particularly in the part to which her possessions 
are contiguous. The Governments of United States and Japan deny 
that they have any purpose to infringe in any way the independence 
or territorial integrity of China and they declare, furthermore, that 
they always adhere to the principle of the so called 'Open Door' or 
equal opportunity for commerce and industry in China." 

Viscount Ishii confirmed this statement m a note to Mr. 
Lansing of the same date. The agreement was made 
public a few days later, and was hailed with immense satis- 
faction by the American and Japanese peoples. Mutual 
fehcitations and congratulations were enthusiastically ex- 
changed. Secretary of State Lansing said in a public 
statement accompanying his announcement of the corre- 
spondence: 

"There had unquestionably been growing up between the peoples 
of the two countries a feeling of suspicion as to the motives inducing 
the activities of the other in the Far East, a feeling which, if unchecked, 
promised to develop a serious situation. Fortunately this distrust 
was not so general in either the United States or Japan as to affect 
the friendly relations of the two Governments, but there is no doubt 
that the feeling of suspicion was increasing, and the untrue reports 
were receiving more and more credence in spite of the earnest efforts 
which were made on both sides of the Pacific to counteract a move- 
ment which would jeopardize the ancient friendship of the two 
nations. The visit of Viscount Ishii and his colleagues has accom- 
plished a great change of opinion in this country. In a few days 
the propaganda of years has been undone, and both nations are now 
able to see how near they came to being led into the trap which had 



412 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

been skilfully set for them. The principal result of the negotiations 
was the mutual understanding which was reached in relation to 
China. The statements in the notes require no explanation. They 
not only contain a reaffirmation of the 'open door' policy, but intro- 
duce a principle of non-interference with the sovereignty and terri- 
torial integrity of China." 

The Japanese view was expressed by Mr. Kenkichi 
Mori^ who said: 

"The United States has established a notable precedent by recog- 
nizing Japan's special position in China with a view to the general 
weal of the Chinese people. . . . The main idea of the agreement 
runs, roughly speaking, parallel to that which is embodied in the 
American declaration of paramountcy on this side of the Atlantic. 
Just as the United States has acquiesced in the retaining of the col- 
onies by European countries on this hemisphere but objects to the 
acquisition of new ones, so Japan is willing to maintain the Hay 
Doctrine, recognizing the interests of the Powers previously acquired 
in Chinese territory, but she is loath to permit hereafter any third 
Power to secure territory or special privilege, which may run counter 
to the principle already enunciated." ^ 

China, however, heard of the agreement with very dif- 
ferent emotions ; nor was her agitation lessened by the fact 
that the Chinese Foreign Office in Peking received its first 
intimation of the agreement from Japanese sources before 
either the American Minister in Peking or the Chinese Min- 
ister in Washington knew about it, a circumstance which 
considerably impaired the ^^face" of these two diplomats. 
November 12, the Chinese Minister in Washington, the 
Honorable V. K. Wellington Koo, lodged formal protest at 
the American Department of State, concluding with the 
statement that ^^it is again declared that the Chinese Gov- 
ernment will not allow herself to be bound by any agree- 
ment entered into by other nations." The essential point 
of protest was that the United States and Japan had showed 
a disregard for the rights of China by making her most 
sacred interests the subject of consideration and formal 
agreement without consultation with her government. 

1 Article in The World Court, December, 1917. 



JAPAN AND AMERICA 413 

The plain implication of course was that China was so 
helpless, or incompetent, that her wishes need not be taken 
into account, and that stronger and wiser parties must 
decide matters for her. It is not surprising that this im- 
pHcation was galling to Chinese sensibilities. Mr. Stewart 
E. S. Yin, editor of The Chinese Students^ Monthly, New 
York, undoubtedly expressed the Chinese opinion when he 
wrote : 

"The agreement was made between the United States and Japan, 
but the subject of the agreement is China. It vitally concerns the 
political as well as the commercial and industrial future of the Chinese 
Republic. Justice, therefore, demanded that China should have had 
a voice in the negotiations of an agreement affecting herself. As a 
matter of fact, neither our Government at Peking nor our Minister 
at Washington was advised of the agreement until several days after 
it had already been concluded and signed, although 'conversations' 
between Secretary Lansing and Viscount Ishii began very early in 
September. ... It is highly questionable whether it will enable the 
American and Japanese Governments to ' maintain a perfectly appre- 
ciative attitude toward each other,' and whether it will result in ' per- 
petual international peace.' The only way to bring about interna- 
tional peace is to have the nations come together and make agree- 
ments, not to take advantage of the weak and unprepared, but to 
insure international justice." ^ 

As the negotiations were conducted in Washington, and 
as the government of China was represented in that city 
by an able Minister, who could have been easily called into 
conference, one does not wonder that the Chinese ask why 
the agreement was consummated without consulting him. 
All conjectures, however, should take into account the fact 
that President Wilson and Secretary of State Lansing were 
real friends of China, who would not be disposed to adopt 
any course which they felt would be unjust to China, or 
jeopardize the good relations which they earnestly desired 
to exist between the two coimtries. 

Moreover, some of China's best friends regarded the 
agreement with favor. That devoted advocate of China's 
interests, Doctor Jeremiah W. Jenks, said: "America has 

1 .^ticle in The World Court, December, 1917. 



414 THE MASTERY OF THE EAR EAST 

certainly now a baais for protest against any aggressive abuse 
that did not exist before. A careful study of the situation 
seems to show that no concessions whatever were made, 
that generally accepted facts were recognized, and that no 
harm has been done to Chinese interests." ^ Bishop James 
W. Bashford, of Peking, also strongly pro-Chinese, expressed 
the opinion that the note will in the end result in good. 
He frankly admitted that ^'it would have been better could 
Secretary Lansing have removed the real source of difficulty 
between the two nations [that both the United States and 
individual States discriminate against the yellow races]." 
But he held that ^'it was utterly impossible in the present 
state of American sentiment toward Japan, and with the 
Constitution as it is, for Mr. Lansing or Mr. Wilson to make 
any agreement with Japan removing these two grievances. 
Doubtless the problems of Japanese aggression in China 
and our exclusion law and discrimination legislation in the 
United States were discussed with more or less frankness 
by Mr. Lansing and Viscount Ishii; but one can see the 
utter impossibility of Japan and the United States alone 
settling these world problems in advance of a world con- 
ference. Under these conditions this note, which sends the 
Japanese mission home with good-will toward our govern- 
ment, and increases the friendship of the two peoples, may 
go farther in helping Japan make the inevitable transition 
from the German to the Allied ideal, both in China and at 
home, than any affirmation on our part of ^Thou shalt' or 
^Thou Shalt not.'" 

It is true that the agreement is not a treaty, and that a 
future administration in either country may or not con- 
sider itself bound by an interchange of notes which were 
not formally ratified in the method prescribed by law, and 
which simply represented "the desires and intentions" of 
officials who were in office at the time. But such a "gen- 
tlemen's agreement" is weighty nevertheless, not only be- 
cause it constitutes a public declaration of attitude and 
policy, but because it rests upon mutual confidence in the 

' Article in The World Court, December, 1917. 



JAPAN AND AMERICA 415 

good faith of both parties and involves the honor of the two 
governments. 

It is rather unfortunate that varying interpretations have 
been placed upon it by the interested parties. The Japa- 
nese emphasize the clause: ^^The Government of the United 
States recognizes that Japan has special interests in China/' 
and regard it as equivalent to conceding their paramountcy ; 
while Americans emphasize the clauses which ^^ adhere to 
the principle of the ^Open Door' for commerce and indus- 
try/' and "deny any purpose to infringe in any way the 
independence or territorial integrity of China." It is easy 
to foresee that disputes may arise if either government shall 
overlook the fact that each of these clauses is to be inter- 
preted consistently with the other. The holding power of 
the agreement will be tested as soon as necessity arises for 
applying it to some concrete case. 

Meantime, the agreement has undoubtedly greatly im- 
proved the relations of the United States and Japan. In 
so far as those relations needed improvement, and Secre- 
tary Lansing's words indicated that they needed it badly, 
all concerned have reason to be relieved and gratified, al- 
though the fundamental causes of disagreement still re- 
main. If the American- Japanese sore has been salved by 
making an American-Chinese sore, the relief will be only 
temporary. But in a time of world war it was urgently 
important to remove any suspicion between two such 
governments as the Japanese and American. We can only 
hope that the party among the Chinese, headed by Tang 
Shao Yi, who indignantly declare that the Washington 
government has "sold China out," will find as time passes 
that their fears have not been reahzed. 



CHAPTER XXVI 

EFFECT OF THE WORLD WAR ON THE POSITION 
OF JAPAN 

All the consequences of the World War of 1914-1918 
cannot now be forecast; but one that is already apparent 
is the establishment of Japanese hegemony in the Far 
East. Japan ^s former efforts to secure it were hampered 
by the conflicting interests of several European Powers, 
and by their ability to protect them. The war diverted 
their attention and energy, while it summoned Japan to a 
great enlargement of her activity just where it could not 
but accrue to her benefit. 

Great Britain early gave Japan a fine opportunity in con- 
nection with the German fortified post at Tsing-tau in the 
province of Shantung, China, which had been made one of 
the most formidable fortifications in the world. Of course 
the British could not afford to leave the Germans in pos- 
session of a naval base from which the immense commerce 
of the Allies in the Far East could be successfully raided; 
and as the British had their hands full in Europe, it was 
natural that they should expect their more conveniently 
situated ally, Japan, to attend to this matter for them. 
The Japanese promptly despatched an ultimatum to the 
Germans, and followed it by a declaration of war August 
23, 1914. German artiller}^ would have made an attack 
from the sea or a landing within the German concession a 
hazardous proceeding; so upon the time-honored plea of 
'^militar}^ necessity,'^ which W^estem nations have so often 
used, Japan, in spite of China^s protests, landed an expedi- 
tionary force on Chinese territory a hundred miles north 
of Tsing-tau, and marched overland. The Germans made 
a sharp resistance, but they did not have enough men to 
hold such extensive works against a greatly superior force, 
and November 7 the Japanese captured the place. 

416 



EFFECT OF THE WORLD WAK ON JAPAN 417 

The Japanese not only took Tsing-tau and its hinterland 
but all the German property and concessions in the prov- 
ince, including the railway from Tsing-tau to Tsinan-fu, 
on the ground that they could not leave their enemies in 
possession of valuable privileges in the interior, and that 
it was their duty to take over everything that the Germans 
had in Shantung, pending the close of the war. While the 
Germans had employed less than a hundred of their own 
nationals on the railway, including the officials of the com- 
pany, and had used Chinese for all the other places, the 
Japanese staffed and operated the railway exclusively with 
their own people. They posted detachments of Japanese 
troops along the line and placed a garrison in Tsinan-fu, 
the capital of the province, two hundred and fifty miles in 
the interior. Substantial stone and concrete barracks have 
been erected at convenient intervals. Courts, post-offices, 
banks, and numerous commercial enterprises have been 
established. Fifty thousand Japanese were reported to be 
in or near Tsing-tau by the end of 1917. Colonies of vary- 
ing size were to be found in other important cities, and 
traders, engineers, and other Japanese on various quests 
were in evidence in almost every part of the province. 
They assert that Shantung belongs to them "as the prize 
of war,'' and that "under no circumstances must this pro- 
vince ever be alienated from Japanese control.'' Tokyo 
officials declare their intention to return Tsing-tau to 
China in due time. The Chinese do not conceal their 
anxiety, failing to understand how Japanese procedure in 
Shantung can be reconciled with temporary purposes. 
Foreign observers wait to see how soon "circumstances" 
will render it "practicable" for the Japanese to relax 
their hold. 

Some surprise was expressed in America because the 
Japanese Government did not send an army to Europe to 
the help of her sorely beset allies in the great war. Whether 
Great Britain and France really wanted a Japanese army 
in France, and whether the Japanese Government really 
wanted to send one and thus leave itself unable to deal 



418 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

with any emergency that might arise nearer home, are 
questions on which opinions differ. It should be said, in 
justice to Japan, that it is a long distance from the Sunrise 
Kingdom to France; that by the ocean route it would have 
been difficult to spare enough ships to transport an aniiy 
that would be large enough to form an appreciable factor in 
military operations in which millions of men were engaged 
on each side, and to keep such an army adequately suppHed 
with munitions, equipment, and the special kind of food to 
which the Japanese are accustomed. Militaiy men esti- 
mated that five tons of shipping were required to transport 
and maintain one foreign soldier in France, so that 2,500,000 
tons would have been needed for 500,000 men; and even 
that force would have been almost insignificant in com- 
parison with the huge armies of the other Allies. America 
had to commandeer every possible vessel, borrow every one 
that England could spare, and inaugurate a stupendous 
ship-building programme in order to get her aimy less than 
half the distance; and America's resources were far greater 
than Japan's. As for the land route by the Trans-Siberian 
Railway, troops sent by that line would have been for 
Russia, which had ample men of her own. Russia needed 
rifles, cannon, ammunition, and supplies for an army in the 
field, and these Japan did sell to her in such quantities that 
the Trans-Siberian Railway was choked with the traffic. 

Doctor lyenaga said in an address in New York that 
among Japan's reasons for not sending armies to Europe 
were that it would impair the hard-won military prestige 
of Japan to put comparatively small forces into the European 
battle-fields, and that Japan was anxious not to re-awaken 
another "Yellow Peril" propaganda with the old one almost 
dead. "Japan is keeping safe the chamiel of communica- 
tion from Aden to Shanghai, and her troops are kept ready 
in case of need for sustaining the status quo in India." He 
significantly added: "Japan would not send her troops as 
mercenaries. We are, to be sure, all united in a common 
cause. But I feel confident that even the United States 
will want a quid pro quo. It has been said that through the 



EFFECT OF THE WORLD WAR ON JAPAN 419 

war Japan has already gained a commanding position in 
the Orient, but this position has never been recognized. 
At present we are holding our troops to safeguard allied 
interests in the East.'^ ^ 

As a matter of fact Japan did give considerable assistance 
to the Allies, probably all that they expected or desired. 
In addition to furnishing indispensable suppHes to Russia 
during the period of the latter's participation in the war, 
Japan drove Germany out of China, seized the German 
colonies in the Far East, swept her naval and mercantile 
shipping from the Pacific Ocean, kept that important part 
of the world open for the commerce of the AUied nations 
and the transport of Austrahan and New Zealand troops, 
maintained at heavy cost her o\\ti army and nscvy on a war 
basis, ready for instant action m case her alHes should desire 
it, and, according to official figures given out in August, 
1918, advanced credits to her alHes amountmg to 3''en 
1,186,000,000 ($593,000,000), of which Great Britain de- 
ceived $371,149,000, Russia, $127,084,000, and France 
about $78,000,000. If it is objected that all these things 
were to Japan's advantage, I reply that this was Japan's 
good fortune, and none the less to the advantage of her 
allies, especially as they enabled Great Britain, France, 
and Italy to concentrate their naval strength in European 
waters, where they most needed it. 

Another phase of the greatly enhanced position which 
Japan has attained as a result of the European War is the 
control of the trade of the Far East. She was zealously 
seeking it before the war broke out, and had already secured 
a substantial share. Nevertheless, the British were still 
the chief factors in the commerce of eastern Asia, althougli 
they were meeting increasingly vigorous competition fron^, 
the Germans as well as the Japanese. At the beginning of 
the war there were 244 German companies in China, 3,740 
German residents, and a capital investment of $256,760,000. 
The enforced withdrawal of the German ships and the ab- 
sorption of the British in the European conflict naturally 

1 Address, May 30, 1917. 



420 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

resulted in eliminating German companies and ships al- 
together, and in transferring a large part of British ener- 
gies and shipping to places nearer home. This left the 
Japanese a free field, and they have taken over the bulk 
of the trade that was formerly conducted by British as 
well as by German firms. In doing so, they did what white 
men, Americans included, have repeatedly done wherever 
they have had a chance. Like the United States, Japan 
at once found an unlimited demand at high prices for muni- 
tions and every staple article that she could produce, and 
her export trade quickly rose to huge proportions. India 
was flooded with Japanese matches, toys, cigarettes, glass- 
ware, silk, cotton, and leather goods. Shipments to South 
America were more than doubled. I have referred in an- 
other chapter to the remarkable increase in the trade with 
China. I may add that an interesting illustration of 
Japanese shrewdness, which a Connecticut Yankee might 
envy, was given in a deal in copper. The war caused an 
extraordinary demand for this metal, and sent the price 
soaring. The coin in common circulation in China is the 
copper ^^cash," about the size of an English penny, and so 
small in value that a gold dollar will buy anywhere from 
fifteen hundred to two thousand of them, according to the 
rate of exchange. In my travels in the interior of China I 
had to have an extra donkey to carry the cash needed for 
my party, and its load had to be replenished several times 
at the money-changers' in the cities through which I passed, 
bullion silver being carried along for this purpose. It 
was said that the copper cash in the Province of Shantung 
alone would weigh nearly fifty thousand tons. To buy 
these cash of the Chinese and sell them to the Europeans, 
who needed the copper for shells, would yield a handsome 
profit. The Japanese proceeded to do it. The Manchuria 
Daily News reported that in a single year the purchases 
amounted to 25,600 tons, and that the transaction was 
completed at a profit of yen 2,167,000 ($1,083,500). 

This is only an incident in many and varied operations 
which ramified widely throughout China. Mr. C. E. Ben- 



EFFECT OF THE \YORLD WAR ON JAPAN 421 

jamin, general passenger agent of the trans-Pacific busi- 
ness of the Canadian Pacific Ocean Service, stated in 
March, 1917, after his return from a visit to the Far East: 
"The Japanese small traders and travelling merchants are 
swarming over China, especially throughout the Yang-tze 
River district, which really includes the most important 
part of China commercially. They move where they like, 
far beyond the trading limits estabHshed by treaty. They 
come and go as they will, with small regard for the restric- 
tions of Chinese regulations or written conventions, imder 
the protection of the vigilant and courageous government 
at Tokyo. The Japanese have acquired extensive hold- 
ings along the Yang-tze and now have sufficient troops 
garrisoned at Hankow to enforce any demand they may 
make." 

Prior to the war, 40 per cent of China^s coasting trade 
of taels 1,200,000,000 was carried in British ships, and only 
10 per cent in Japanese; while of China^s importations of 
cotton goods, 70 per cent was from Europe and America 
and 20 per cent from Japan. Mr. Yoshida, of the Japanese 
Department of Commerce and Agriculture, who reports 
these facts, adds with pardonable gratification: "Things 
have been developing in favor of Japan since the outbreak 
of hostilities." ^ 

Many people in Great Britain were so preoccupied by the 
war that they were slow to concern themselves very much 
with this situation; but British residents in the Far East 
knew all about it, and they looked upon Japanese absorp- 
tion of British trade with emotions which can better be 
imagined than described. 

Russia, too, soon became a profitable customer of Japan. 
Before the war, she had been buying Japanese goods at the 
rate of yen 120,000,000 a year, and now this trade received 
a great impetus, as Russia needed vast quantities of war 
munitions, besides various kinds of manufactured goods. 
The usual channels of trade with western Europe and the 
United States were cut off by Germany, but the Trans- 

1 Report published July 18, 1918. 



422 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Siberian Railway remained an open line from Japan. The 
result was that Russia began to buy in Japan, and presently 
long freight-trains were loaded with Japanese rifles, ammu- 
nition, chemicals, hospital supplies, clothing, copper and 
leather goods, and a variety of other manufactured products. 
By the end of 1917 Japan had furnished Russia munitions 
and other suppHes to the value of $300,000,000. As Russia 
had comparatively little to sell to Japan in return, Japan's 
favorable balance was a comfortable sum for a nation that 
had been in financial straits. 

Nor did Japan suffer in competition with her greatest 
free rival, the United States. American trade with Japan 
in 1916 was valued at $290,845,813, against $154,047,067 in 
1915, and $147,477,231 in 1914. Imports from Japan in 
1916 were $182,090,737, an increase of 73 per cent over the 
preceding year, while our exports to Japan were $108,755,- 
000, a gain of 136 per cent. In spite, therefore, of our ad- 
vance in exports, the balance of trade was against the 
United States to the tune of $73,335,737. 

In these circumstances, Japan began to heap up the 
wealth that she so greatly needed. One steamship company 
declared dividends of 360 per cent, and another paid divi- 
dends at the rate of 720 per cent. A metal-refining com- 
pany declared 200 per cent, besides writing off for the 
largest part of its plant. Manufacturing concerns increased 
their plants, employed more operatives, and ran at high 
pressure. Japan's ocean shipping, which aggregated 1,030,- 
000 tons in 1905, had reached 1,690,000 in 1915, and is now 
2,000,000 tons, and her 224 shipyards are working night and 
day. One hundred and eighty-two steamships were under 
construction in 1917, and 72 with an aggregate tonnage of 
333,841 were launched during the year ending March 31, 
1918. Bank clearings in a single year showed a gain of 
78 per cent. Postal savings in 1918 were yen 299,860,776 
greater than in 1914, and had passed the half-billion mark. 
The number of depositors had become 18,464,431, an in- 
crease of 5,493,524; and their average deposit had risen 
nearly a hundred per cent. Japan, like the United States. 



EFFECT OF THE WORLD WAR ON JAPAN 423 

suddenly passed from a borrowing to a creditor nation. 
Foreign indebtedness was considerably reduced, and large 
purchases were made of the bonds and treasury notes 
issued by her European Allies. By the beginning of 1918 
the gold holdings of the government and the Bank of 
Japan were over $400,000,000. 

Viscount Yataro Mishima, governor of the Bank of 
Japan, stated in his Annual Report in 1918 that Japan took 
$230,000,000 of the war loans of Great Britain, France, and 
Russia in 1917, while in addition $340,000,000 was furnished 
as capital for new business enterprises. The amount of 
Japan's national loans floated during the year was about 
$120,000,000, and issues of debentures by various com- 
panies and of municipal bonds aggregated about $70,000,- 
000. He truly said that 'Hhis clearly indicates that the 
augmentation in our resom'ces is really remarkable." Turn- 
ing to the record of the year's foreign trade, he estimated 
that, including the trade in Korea and Taiwan, exports 
aggregated $831,450,000, and imports $543,660,000, the 
total being about $1,375,110,000. Compared with the re- 
sults of the previous year, these figures show an increase of 
$244,970,000 on the side of exports, and $146,730,000 on 
that of imports. Imports of gold and silver aggregated 
$196,110,000, and exports $76,865,000. 

Of course, the war trade was abnormal, but Japan's 
added wealth, her increased industrial equipment and effi- 
ciency, and her pre-eminence in Asiatic markets remain as 
national assets of immense value. Every year increases her 
ability to manufacture what the world needs, to ship it 
where it is needed, and to sell it in competition with business 
men of Western nations. 

Most significant of ^11 in its effect not only upon the Far 
East but upon the world at large is the ascendancy of the 
Japanese in Chinese governmental affairs. Possession of 
the strategic base which Germany held in the province of 
Shantung is a political and military advantage of high 
value ; but this is not all. Early in the year 1915, the world 
was startled to learn that on Januar}^ 18 Japan had made 



424 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

twenty-one demands upon the government of China. 
They were arranged in five groups. The first group re- 
lated to the interests which Japan had won from Germany 
in Shantung; the second to 'Hhe special position enjoyed 
by Japan in South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mon- 
golia"; the third to the Hanyeh-ping Iron and Steel Com- 
pany; the fourth required China "not to cede or lease to a 
third Power any harbor or bay or island along the coast of 
China '^; and the fifth asked China to "employ influential 
Japanese as advisers in political, financial and military 
affairs" ; to agree that "the police departments of important 
places in China shall be jointly administered by Japanese 
and Chinese"; to "purchase from Japan 50 per cent or 
more of munitions of war needed by the Chinese Govern- 
ment," "Japanese experts to be employed and Japanese 
material to be purchased"; to grant Japan the right to 
construct certain railways; to give Japanese hospitals, 
churches, and schools the right to own land in the interior 
of China; to consult Japan before borrowing foreign cap- 
ital for mines, railways, and harbor work; and to permit 
Japanese to propagate Buddhism in China. 

These demands threw the Chinese into the utmost con- 
sternation, as they were understood to mean the impairment 
of Chinese sovereignty and the virtual overlordship of 
Japan. President Yuan Shih Kai protested against several 
of them and flatly refused to sign those in Group V. Rep- 
resentatives of the American and British Governments used 
their friendly offices with the Japanese, and April 26 the 
Japanese presented a revised list, in which some of the most 
objectionable of the original demands were modified, and 
a few were dropped. May 1 the Chinese Government ac- 
cepted some of the demands, but dealt with others in a 
way that was not satisfactory to the Japanese, who May 7 
presented an ultimatum closing with the peremptory state- 
ment: "The Imperial Government hereby again offer their 
advice and hope that the Chinese Government, upon this 
advice, will give a satisfactory reply by six o^clock p. m. on 
the 9th day of May. It is hereby declared that if no satis- 



EFFECT OF THE WORLD WAR ON JAPAN 425 

factory reply is received before or at the specified time, 
the Imperial Government will take steps they may deem 
necessary." 

The Chinese felt that they were in a grievous case. They 
did not want to yield; but they knew that they were help- 
less, with no military or naval strength to withstand the 
disciphned and efficient forces of the Japanese. They 
knew, too, that they could get no assistance from Western 
nations. The British made no secret of their concern; 
but Japan was their ally in the European War, and they did 
not deem it prudent to offend her. The American Gov- 
ernment intimated its anxiety and the American press was 
outspoken in protest; but nobody was in a position to in- 
terpose effective objection. 

Reams of explanations have been written from the Japa- 
nese view-point, and other reams of criticism from the Chi- 
nese view-point. Doctor Sidney L. Gulick says: "I have it 
on pretty high authority that Group V was put up for pur- 
poses of trading. Japan arranged that Yuan Shih Kai 
could say to China that he had forced Japan to back down 
on the most important demands and thus 'save his face' 
for having yielded the rest." Unfortunately, China was 
not in a position to '^ trade" with a fair chance, and Yuan 
Shih Kai's ^^face" was beyond saving. 

The position of the Japanese as explained to me by sev- 
eral prominent Japanese may be epitomized as follows: 
China is huge in population and resources, but lacking in 
national imity and efficiency. In this age, when interna- 
tional relations are founded upon force and each govern- 
ment is seeking its own interests with scant regard for the 
rights of others, China cannot take care of herself. Euro- 
pean nations have made repeated aggressions upon her, and 
to-day they occupy her most valuable harbors. In the 
capital itself, the foreign legations are virtually fortified 
posts, armed, provisioned and guarded by military forces 
in B, way that would not be permitted in the capital of any 
government able to defend itself from such an insult. 
Further foreign aggressions are probable and China cannot 



426 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

resist them. It is equally clear that the government is not 
strong enough to develop the resources of the country and 
to organize its industries and life as they ought to be de- 
veloped and organized both for the sake of China and for 
that of other nations which need her products. In these 
circumstances, China must have guidance and protection 
from the outside, or else continue in a state of disorganiza- 
tion equally inJTirious to herself and dangerous to the peace 
of the world. The Japanese are the proper ones to give 
this assistance. They are close at hand, a sister Asiatic 
people, with large interests in China, and with their own 
safety involved in Chinese affairs. It is therefore the duty 
of Japan to do in China what imperatively needs to be 
done. It is to be regretted that the Chinese do not appre- 
ciate the necessity for Japan's assistance and organizing 
ability; but Japan cannot permit herself to be diverted 
from her plain national and international obligations by 
the jealousy or obtuseness of Chinese officials. The United 
States Government has its Monroe Doctrine and has re- 
peatedly given notice that it will not permit any other 
nation to obtain further territories in Mexico, Central or 
South America, or to secure concessions or make loans 
which would give a right to impinge upon the territory or 
sovereignty of any nation in the Western hemisphere. 
China is Japan's Monroe Doctrine. It is even more vital 
to Japan than South America is to the United States. 
Just as the United States will not permit any other Power 
to interfere in South America, so Japan will not permit 
any other Power to interfere in China. 

I have not attempted to quote the exact words of my 
Japanese friends. I have simply given my impression of 
the substance of the position that they took, and I beheye 
it to be approximately correct. What they said certainly 
justified such an interpretation. I am confirmed in this 
opinion by the following statement of Mr. K. Yoshizawa, 
Counselor of the Japanese Legation in Peking: ^' There are 
only two world powers now which can give attention to 
China in any appreciable degree. They are Japan and the 



EFFECT OF THE WORLD WAR ON JAPAN 427 

United States. . . . But Japan, for geographical reasons 
and because of her poHtical and other relations in the past, 
is in a more convenient position than America to assist 
China. The responsibility of Japan, therefore, is very great. 
Japan should treat China as if she were Japan's own rela- 
tive. This task requires a great deal of patience on the 
part of Japan. Japan must care for China as a mother 
cares for her child. It is my idea that we should be patient 
with China. If she listens to our friendly suggestions, she 
should be encouraged; if she does not, she should be chas- 
tised as a father punishes his wayward son. I expect to 
assist Baron Hayashi, my chief, in Peking with that policy 
in mind.'^ ^ 

During Viscount Kikujiro Ishii's visit in America, he dis- 
claimed a press report that in one of his addresses he had 
announced a Japanese Monroe Doctrine for Asia. He de- 
clared that ^Hhere is this fundamental difference between 
the Monroe Doctrine of the United States as to Central 
and South America and the enunciation of Japan's attitude 
toward China. In the first, there is on the part of the 
United States no engagement or promise, while in the 
other Japan voluntarily announces that Japan will herself 
engage not to violate the poHtical or territorial integrity 
of her neighbor and to observe the principle of the open 
door and equal opportunity, asking at the same time other 
nations to respect these principles. Therefore, gentlemen, 
you will mark the wide difference and agree with me, I am 
sure, that the use of the term is somewhat loose and mis- 
leading.'^ 2 

I am glad to quote Viscomit Ishii's disclaimer. How- 
ever, the use of the Monroe Doctrine, as an illustration of 
Japan^s relations to China, was first suggested by the Japa- 
nese themselves, and it has been repeatedly pressed by 
them. Viscount Ishii's intimation that Japan has made 
more liberal promises to China than the United States has 
made to South America may be verbally correct, but we 

* Quoted in The Japan Society Bulletin, New York, April 30, 1917. 
' Address in New York, October 1, 1917. 



428 THE MASTERY OF THE FAU EAST 

are puzzled to understand how the declaration can be 
squared with the facts. At any rate, Americans will doubt- 
less say at once that if Japan means for China only what 
the United States means by its Monroe Doctrine, they have 
no objection whatever, but, on the contrary, hearty sym- 
pathy. As a matter of fact, our country does not interfere 
with the internal affairs of any other nation in this hemi- 
sphere. It demands no concessions from them, appoints no 
advisers, and stations no soldiers within their territories. 
Even when Mexico was convulsed for years by a revolution 
which ruined valuable American property and destroyed 
many American lives, the Washington government declined 
to intervene, although strongly urged to do so. The Ameri- 
can policy is that each nation should be left absolutely free 
to work out its own destiny. The United States simply says 
to other Powers: ^^ Hands off." The demands which Japan 
has made upon China go much farther than this. It is im- 
possible to read them and conclude that Japan contemplates 
nothing more in China than the United States contemplates 
in the Western hemisphere. 

The Cheng-chiatun affair in 1916 is a case in point. 
Fighting occurred between Japanese troops and the Chi- 
nese, and men were killed on both sides. Opinions differ 
as to whether the Japanese or the Chinese were to blame. 
It was natural that the government of Japan should ac- 
cept the interpretation of its own officers, especially as 
Chinese officials are notorious for ''saving face" without 
regard to truthfulness. But an outsider naturally inquires : 
Why were Japanese troops there at all? Cheng-chiatun is 
not in any part of China in which the Chinese have recog- 
nized the right of Japan to station soldiers. Clashes are 
to be expected in such circumstances. One can imagine 
what would happen to a foreign armed force in Japan. 
But in Cheng-chiatun Japanese troops were stationed, and 
for what followed, whether it was attack or resistance on 
the part of the Chinese, China was forced to pay ignomini- 
ous penalties. The first demands of Japan included the 
rights to establish Japanese police stations ''at certain fixed 



EFFECT OF THE WORLD WAR ON JAPAN 429 

localities in Manchuria and Inner Mongolia/^ and, ''in case 
of necessity, at other special localities in the above-men- 
tioned region." "Japan is entitled to ask permission from 
China to estabHsh police stations.'^ Another point was 
that "besides the engagement of Lieutenant-General Aoki 
as military adviser, China is asked to engage several more 
mihtary advisers from Japan.'' After considerable nego- 
tiation Japan agreed to withdraw these clauses, and the 
final agreement was as follows: 

(1) " The commander of the Twenty-Eighth Division shall be repri- 
manded. (2) Chinese military officers responsible for the trouble 
shall be duly punished, (3) China agrees to issue orders to the mili- 
tary and civil classes in districts wherein Japanese subjects enjoy the 
privilege of residence, stating that Japanese subjects, civil and mili- 
tary, shall all be accorded such courtesy as is due them. (4) The 
military governor of Mukden will send a delegate to express his re- 
grets to the Japanese military governor of Kwang-tung and the 
Japanese consul-general at Mukden at a time when both of them are 
at Port Arthur. The form of expressing such regrets will be deter- 
mined by the Chinese governor himself. (5) The family of the 
Japanese Yoshimoto will be given five hundred dollars silver as in- 
demnity. On the execution of the foregoing provisions, Japan will 
withdraw the additionally stationed troops from Shipinchie and 
Cheng-chiatun.'^ 

The Chinese Government submitted to these terms; 
and so this particular crisis, which at first appeared omi- 
nous, was safely passed. But what next ? Doctor Jeremiah 
W. Jenks says that "information from authoritative sources 
is to the effect that at the very time that Viscount Ishii 
was making his most eloquent addresses in this country, 
Japanese agents in Peking were crowding Chinese Govern- 
ment officials by every device known to those skillful 
negotiators."^ 

1 The New York Times, December 28, 1917. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
DEEPENING COMPLICATIONS WITH CHINA 

The Far Eastern situation assumed a new phase in March, 
1917, when China severed diplomatic relations with Ger- 
many, handed the German Minister in Peking his passports, 
and ordered the seizure of German ships in Chinese harbors. 
This was followed by a formal declaration of war August 
17. The ostensible reason was the submarine policy of 
Germany, which had largely broken up China's trade with 
Europe, and caused the death of several hundred Chinese 
who were on torpedoed ships. Large numbers of coolies 
were being sent to France to take the places of French 
laborers, who were needed in the trenches. More than 
100,000 were in France by the first of March, and the ships 
that were sunk were carrying additional men. 

No one who knows China and the Chinese will take these 
reasons at their face value. China had submitted in the 
past to far more grievous provocations without making 
war, and she would not have dreamed of war in 1917 if 
Germany had not been shut up in Europe beyond possibiHty 
of getting out. The spirit of republican China is far differ- 
ent from that of the Manchu autocrats of the old regime, 
and the sympathy of the new leaders would naturally be 
with the democratic peoples of the West. But the govern- 
ment knew quite well that the repubHc had too many in- 
ternal problems on its hands, and was too utterly helpless 
as a militaiy factor to undertake war against a first-class 
Power like Germany. Besides, the sentiment of the people 
of northern China was largely pro-German. This was not 
because the Chinese were antagonistic to England and 
and France, but because they feared the Japanese and in- 
stinctively sympathized with Germany as Japan's enemy. 

Arthur H. Smith, who probably knows China better than 

430 



DEEPENING COMPLICATIONS WITH CHINA 431 

any other li\dng man, said: ^'This [the declaration of war] 
is largely a legal fiction. No man [soldier] has gone nor 
will go, so far as we know; no money has been spent or will 
be spent, so far as we can see. It is only the external im- 
pression that goes abroad that China is hostile to Ger- 
many. It is very uncertain whether China is really hos- 
tile to Germany, The Germans have adapted themselves 
in their commerce to China as no other nations have ever 
done; they also have known better how to advertise and 
to make themselves and their productions known. Now 
that China has declared war on Germany, most official 
Germans, from the Minister down, have been deported, 
but private citizens remain and their internment is only 
nominal.'' 

Why, then, did the government break with Germany and 
identify itself with the Allies? Devious are the ways of 
diplomacy, and its real reasons are seldom megaphoned 
from housetops. It may be some time yet before the world 
will know the actual motives in this case; but certain con- 
siderations lie upon the surface, and while we cannot now 
appraise their exact relative influence, we shaU not be 
going far afield in mentioning them. 

For one thing, China had a strong financial, reason for 
breaking with Germany. The government was in desperate 
financial straits, and it owed Germany a large sum on which 
the interest charges were $20,000,000 a year. China rightly 
regarded this debt as an unjust one since it was the indem- 
nity imposed after the Boxer Uprising, an indenmity which 
on the part of aU the European Powers concerned, includ- 
ing Germany, was deliberately intended not merely to be 
a reimbursement for actual losses but a severe pimishment. 
The United States refused to accept more than the amount 
of its estimated loss and then refunded the excess; but the 
European governments demanded their full pound of 
flesh. Germany's share was 90,070,515 taels, and Austria- 
Hungary's was 4,003,920 taels more, which, Hke the shares 
of other nations, was to be paid in thirty-nine annual in- 
stahnents, with interest at 4 per cent on deferred pay- 



432 THE MASTERY OF THE EAR EAST 

ments. Many of the payments had been deferred since 
the protocol was signed in 1901, and interest had piled up 
until the burden had become ponderous. The declaration 
of war was held to cancel this obligation as well as all 
treaties, and it thus afforded substantial relief to a govern- 
ment which was in sore need of money. China also owed 
the Allies large sums for their indemnities. The portion 
assigned to France was 70,878,240 taels, to Great Britain 
50,712,795, to Italy 26,617,005, and to Russia 130,371,120. 
The annual interest on the remaining part of the principal 
and on deferred payments amounted to a huge sum. Would 
the Allies remit a part or the whole of these obligations if 
China would join them against Gennany? The answer 
appeared in September, 1917, when the ministers of the 
Entente Powers at Peking informed the Foreign Office of 
the Chinese Government that their governments would 
postpone further payments of the indemnities for a period 
of five years, a concession which, it was estimated, would 
give China the use of about $200,000,000. Whether the 
payments will ever be resumed remains to be seen. 

Moreover, under the treaties which Western governments 
imposed upon China at the close of the nineteenth century, 
import duties are limited to 5 per cent ad valorem based 
on the average prices of goods in the years 1897-1899. 
This is a heavy handicap, especially as the great increase 
in prices, and the change from an ad valorem duty to 
specific duties for purposes of collection, reduced the actual 
tariff on the basis of present values to a considerably lower 
rate. Meantime, Chinese goods entering Western coun- 
tries were taxed from 33 to 100 per cent. This was an in- 
justice which no foreign government would have tolerated. 
China had long been petitioning Western governments to 
consent to a change in the tariff. The United States had 
complied, but several of the European governments had 
refused to do so. Professor Jeremiah W. Jenks well says 
that 'Hhe foreign-controlled Chinese tariff cripples Chinese 
industry because it discriminates against Chinese industry 
and in favor of foreign products at all points. It weakens 



DEEPENING COMPLICATIONS WITH CHINA 433 

the Chinese central and provincial governments because it 
encourages contempt for native authority, while depriving 
these authorities of the money-means of securing efficiency 
and respect." China therefore urgently desired relief, and 
everybody believed that the Allies were disposed to give it 
if China would range herself on their side in the war. 

China, too, wished to secure foreign loans, and her credit 
was bad. She could not obtain money from Great Britain 
or France unless she could supplement her security by other 
considerations that the British and the French deemed 
valuable. Help in the war was a consideration of this 
kind. 

China had another reason of still greater moment. Her 
leaders knew quite well that when the representatives of all 
the belligerent nations should meet around a council-table 
to consider terms of peace, there would probably be a re- 
distribution of large parts of Asia, Africa, and the Pacific 
Islands, in all of which the belligerent nations on both 
sides had great colonial territories. Among these valuable 
possessions were the priceless concessions which Germany 
had held in the province of Shantung, and which the Japa- 
nese took over when they drove the Germans out of Tsing- 
tau. China feared that the Japanese intended to keep 
them; and many observers believed that there was ground 
for the fear. As the disposition of all the German colonies 
would come before the peace conference the Chinese Gov- 
ernment naturally desired representation in order that it 
might have a voice in deciding what was to be done with 
Tsing-tau and its hinterland. Indeed the whole question 
of foreign aggressions upon China might come up. The 
Premier, Tuan Chi-jui, told the Parliament that not only 
these questions but questions of the tariff, extraterritorial 
laws, and revision of treaties would probably be considered 
and settled at the peace conference, and that in the final 
adjustments and compromises, China would almost cer- 
tainly be involved. The Chinese did not like the idea of 
having such matters decided without them, and they were 
well aware that their only chance to be heard was to iden- 



434 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

tify themselves with the AlHes. The event proved the 
correctness of their behef, for their status as a belHgerent 
secured them two representatives at the Peace Conference. 

It had been known for some time that the European 
Allies were urging China to join them, and it is easy to see 
why they were anxious to have her do so. Every co- 
operating nation, however small, meant additional moral 
support. But China is not small. It is true that it is not 
formidable as a military power, but it was not a light thing 
for the Allies to be able to feel that, if they had China's 
co-operation, they would have nearly the whole of Asia, 
since they already had, either volmitarily or involuntarily, 
India, Persia, Japan, and Korea, with Siam well under way. 
China could bring some material advantages that were not 
to be despised. She had an army of 458,600 men. This 
was a comparatively small force, and not an effective one 
from a modem view-point. But there was an unlimited 
number of men to enlarge it; and if the war should be pro- 
longed, they could be drilled into efficiency, for the Chinese 
make good soldiers when properly organized and led. 

Laboring men were quite as important to the Allies as 
soldiers. So many of their own workmen were needed in 
the fighting ranks that they were having great difficulty in 
maintaining their farms and factories and other industrial 
operations. In a war in which food and munitions played 
so large a part, and in which enemy submaiines jeopardized 
suppHes from other lands, it was an enormous advantage 
to have such a boundless reservoir of men as China to draw 
upon. 

Nor was China without means of giving some assistance 
in munitions. She then h^d several arsenals — the Hanyang 
arsenal, the Hupeh Steel and Power Factory, the Teh-chou 
arsenal, the Shanghai arsenal, and the Nanking arsenal, 
and two more were planned for in the provinces of Chih-li 
and Kwang-timg, respectively. Some of these arsenals 
were large, and all could be easily made larger. Raw ma- 
terials, too, China possesses in unhmited abundance, the 
very ones that the European armies most needed. 



DEEPENING COMPLICATIONS WITH CHINA 435 

The British had an urgent additional reason for seeking 
the co-operation of China in their conviction, for which 
there were abundant grounds, that the German legation 
in Peking, the German consulates in a number of impor- 
tant cities, and the 3,740 Germans scattered throughout 
China were conducting a propaganda against the AUies, 
obstructing their plans, and making China a base for plot- 
ting against India in a way which was causing no small 
anxiety to the authorities in that country, where condi- 
tions were not as satisfactoiy as a censored press sought 
to make the world believe. No one who was familiar with 
German methods deemed this a light thing, and the most 
effective way for Great Britain to stop this dangerous ac- 
tivity was to induce China to break with Germany, and to 
intern German subjects within her bounds. 

As soon as it became evident that the AUies were trying 
to persuade China to join them against Germany, and that 
the Chinese Government was disposed to do so, Japan 
protested. Without professing to know why the Japanese 
did this, we may, as in the case of China, note some reasons 
that He upon the surface. The objects that China hoped 
to secure by breaking with Germany were the very ones 
that it was not to the interest of Japan that China should 
obtain. Japan preferred to deal with China herself, tm- 
embarrassed by complications with European governments. 
Japan did not care to have China's financial position 
strengthened by European loans, secured by valuable con- 
siderations of a kind that the United States would object 
to if a South American republic were to give them to a 
European nation. Nor did Japan care to have China given 
a voice around the council-table of nations where the dis- 
position of the province of Shantung and perhaps Man- 
churia might be considered. Japan's opposition was so 
definite and so potent that the plan to have China break 
with Germany was checked. 

In March, 1917, Japan suddenly withdrew objection. 
How are we to account for such a reversal of attitude? 
Again I must remark that the ways of diplomacy are devious 



436 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

and seldom megaphoned from housetops, and that he is 
iinsophisticated indeed in international affairs who imagines 
that Japan changed her mind without valuable considera- 
tions. The Euro] jean Allies undoubtedly gave Japan as- 
surances that the Japanese thought were worth while, 
among them perhaps the promise that Japan would not 
be seriously interfered with in carrying out her programme 
in China. This suspicion was strengthened when the 
Russian Revolutionary Government published some of the 
documents that it found in the Foreign Office at Petrograd. 
Among the revelations was evidence that the Allied Minis- 
ters in Peking had urged the Chinese Government to go 
into the war, and had presented as an inducement the con- 
sideration that China would then have a seat at the peace 
conference, and thus have a chance to get back Tsing-tau. 
At the same time, the Russian Minister in Tokyo was 
urging the Japanese Go^Trnment to withdraw its objec- 
tion to China's going to the war, and saying that, if it would 
do so, the AlHes would support Japan's claim to keep 
Tsing-tau.^ 

Verily, dubious are the ways of secret diplomacy. Certain 
it is that Japan, which had at first vetoed the break with 
Germany, afterward advised it. Doctor Frank J. Good- 
now, President of Johns Hopkins University and formerly 
confidential Foreign Adviser of the Chinese Government, 
said at the time: ^^ China would never have broken off re- 
lations but for the urgings of Japan, w^hich has sinister de- 
signs against the integrity of China. And unfortunately she 
will be able to carry out her scheme. One obvious motive 
is the opportunity it will afford Japan to gain control of 
China's army and navy, a step that will put her abso- 
lutely at the Mikado's mercy." - 

Time alone will show whether China embroiled herself 
in the world war to her benefit or to her hurt. We suspect 

^ Despatch from M. Krupensky, former Russian Ambassador at Tokyo, 
to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Petrograd, February 8, 1917, cited in 
The Secret Treaties and Understandings, published by the Russian Revolu- 
tionary Government. At the Peace Conference Japan claimed like agree- 
ments by France, England, and Italy. ^ Pi-ess interview, March 14, 1917. 



DEEPENING COIMPLICATIONS WITH CHINA 437 

that, in spite of the virtuous and well-meant declarations 
of the various Powers regarding 'Hhe rights of weaker 
nations/' poor, helpless China will get only what the re- 
presentatives of stronger governments deem expedient, and 
that Japan will have a good deal to say as to what that 
shall be. 

Meantime, the number of Japanese in China is rapidly 
increasing. Not only is Tsing-tau wholly under Japanese 
control, but such cities as Peking, Tien-tsin, Shanghai, and 
others far in the interior have Japanese quarters. Tsinan-fu, 
which had only 1,400 Japanese in March, 1916, had 22,000 
a year later. Hankow, six hundred miles up the Yang-tze 
River, also has a numerous Japanese colony. Indeed almost 
all the important centres in the country have groups of 
Japanese, ranging from a few individuals to populous set- 
tlements. These Japanese are seldom of the coolie class; 
they are as a rule enterprising and capable men of a higher 
t}^e, able to represent their country's interests to advan- 
tage, and on the alert to do so. 

Premier Terauchi and his Foreign Minister pubHcly de- 
clared early in 1917 that their poHcy in China was to be 
one of '^non-interference" with Chinese affairs. But Chi- 
nese officials find able and courteous Japanese "advisers" 
at their elbows, and foreign diplomats and consuls discover 
that in various and more or less mysterious ways Japanese 
influence makes itself felt. Documents in my possession 
from men of undoubted reliabihty give a rather startling 
accoimt of the imperious methods of the Japanese in a part 
of China in which they are particularly numerous, and of 
the resultant uneasiness and even actual terror of the Chi- 
nese population. However reassuring the public language 
of diplomacy may be, any one who acts on the assumption 
that the Japanese do not possess an ascendancy in Chinese 
matters which they intend to maintain is likely to have a 
rude awakening. 

One can understand the resentment of the Chinese 
against the constant interference of other nations in their 
internal affairs, and their quite natm-al demand to be let 



438 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

alone. On the other hand, it is painfully evident that 
China will not be let alone. She has no adequate leader- 
ship, and she is too big a hulk to be allowed to drift help- 
lessly about the world's thoroughfares for a generation or 
more before she can right herself and cease to be a tempta- 
tion to any predatory Power that may covet her. More- 
over, several nations besides Japan are already there, and 
show no disposition to leave. With Russia in Manchuria, 
Great Britain in Hong Kong, and France in Saigon, I can 
understand the feeling of the Japanese that their interests 
may be fairly considered paramount to those of European 
nations, and that since there is bound to be interference 
with China anyw^ay, Japan has a better right than any of 
her competitors. 

Japan's interests in China are more vital than America's 
interests in South America. The United States could get 
along without that continent far better than Japan could get 
along without China. While we desire South American 
trade and raw materials, we are not dependent upon them.. 
But Japan is dependent, in part at least, upon the Chinese 
market and Chinese products. I have referred in another 
chapter to her large trade relations with China, and many 
other instances might be cited. For example, as a great 
manufacturing and steel-producing countr}^, Japan must 
have ample supplies of iron ore. She has practically none 
of her own and must import her supply. The nearest place 
where it can be found in sufficient quantity is in China, 
which has vast deposits. Japan also needs China's coal. 
She has some of her own, but not nearly enough. A great 
manufacturing nation in this industrial era must have un- 
limited supplies of iron and coal. China has both. Hence 
Japan wants prior rights in China. 

An interesting illustration of Japan's attitude occurred 
after the American Minister in Peking, the Honorable Paul 
S. Reinsch, presented to the government of China, June 7, 
1917, a note to the effect that the government of the United 
States viewed with deep and friendly concern the disturbed 
situation in China: that China's entrance into the world 



DEEPENING COMPLICATIONS WITH CHINA 439 

war or the continuance of the status quo in her relation 
with Germany was of '' secondary importance"; that her 
"principal necessity" was to '^resimie and continue her 
poKtical entity and proceed along the road to national de- 
velopment"; that it was the hope of America that "fac- 
tional and political disputes" would be "set aside," and 
that "aU parties and persons would work to re-estabhsh 
and co-ordinate the government and secure China's posi- 
tion among the nations, which is impossible while there is 
internal discord"; and that the United States was a friend 
who desired to be "of service to China." Japan resented 
this advice to China "^dthout prior consultation with, the 
Tokyo government. The publication of a garbled revision 
of the x\merican note made matters worse. The correct 
copy, published June 13, somewhat modified the anger of 
the Japanese, but failed to dispel it. The comments of the 
Japanese press were vitriolic, and the Tokyo government 
courteously but firmly intimated its surprise and regret. 
"Woe betide China," exclaimed Mr. Kyoshi Kawakami, 
"if she thinks that America can be relied upon to save her 
when the day really comes that China must be saved." 
"Let me say to you quite frankly," remarked Doctor Toyo- 
kishi lyenaga in an article in the New York Evening Post, 
"that Japan will resent an attempt at extending the politi- 
cal influence of the United States in China; but it must be 
clearly understood that this does not involve any curtail- 
ment of the privileges of commercial and industrial ex- 
pansion which the United States may seek in China. Our 
pohtical interests in China are greater than yours. China 
is closer to us. But there is no disposition on the part of 
Japan to close the open door or to create inequaHties in the 
terms on which the United States may engage in Far East- 
em trade." 

That America was not discriminated against as compared 
with Great Britain appeared in the spring of 1918, when 
the Japanese Minister in Peking protested to the Chinese 
Government against giving a British syndicate a conces- 
sion to construct a railway from Posiet Bay, near Vladivos- 



4L 



440 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

tok, by way of Hun-chuii on the Korean border to Kirin, 
the terminus of the Japanese branch Hne. It is clear that 
Japan's claim to pre-eminence in the Far East is not an 
empty expression, and that other nations are expected to 
take due notice and govern themselves accordingly. 

There is a vital aspect of the international question in- 
\'olved that should not be overlooked. We are hearing 
much in these days of the right of each nation to manage 
its own affairs and to determine for itself whether it shall 
be independent or under the tutelage of some stronger 
Power. The speakers and writers who dress up this prin- 
ciple in such attractive language for pubHc consumption 
apparently do not realize, or if they do, they deem it inex- 
pedient to mdicate, the limitations that are imposed by 
inexorable necessity. A nation, like an individual, has a 
right to do as it pleases as long as it pleases to do right. 
But suppose it pleases to do wrong? Or suppose, with 
good intentions, it is too ignorant or undisciplined to use 
freedom in proper ways? ^'Ay, there's the rub!" Must 
we not qualify acceptance of the principle by saying that 
when the consequences of a nation's ill-doing affect only its 
own people, other nations should not interfere but leave it 
to work out its own salvation, and to learn by painful ex- 
perience that the w^ay of the transgressor is hard ; but that 
if the consequences of a nation's ill-doing impinge upon 
other nations, they are justified in interfering to the extent 
that their rights are impaired ? Otherwise, the veiy essence 
of the principle of national rights is vitiated since other 
nations are denied their rights. 

This is precisely the situation that confronts the world 
to-day. Dui'ing the. great war we said in the same breath 
that a nation has a right to determine its own form of 
government and to manage its own affairs, but that when 
a powerful nation like Germany comes into world relation- 
ships armed to the teeth, and imder the leadership of a 
monarch who asserts that he derives his power directly 
' from God, and is responsible only to God and not to his 
fellow men for the use that he makes of it, no other nation 



DEEPENING COIMPLICATIONS WITH CHINA 441 

on the planet is safe until that government is deprived of 
its power to do evil. 

The principle of self-determination must also be quali- 
fied in the case of peoples who are so unfitted for the exer- 
cise of freedom that their internal affairs become a source 
of international trouble. Turkey, Mexico, and the Balkan 
States belong in this class. Was it the duty of other na- 
tions to acquiesce in Turkey^s treatment of the Armenians, 
in the endless succession of bloody revolutions in Mexico, 
and in the liberty of unscrupulous adventurers to make the 
Balkan States a Pandora's box of world e\dls? Clearly, 
the orderly and capable nations of the world must adopt 
some method of dealing with the disorderly and incapable 
ones, and with the same justification that every state pos- 
sesses in dealing with its immature, defective, and criminal 
classes. The individual man has the inalienable right to 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; but the most 
democratic government on earth will promptly punish him 
if he breaks the laws w^hich are essential to the preserva- 
tion of the rights of the community. 

If it be objected that Americans did not recognize the 
right of self-determination in their acquisition of Florida, 
Louisiana, California, Alaska, Porto Rico, and the Phil- 
ippines, and that Great Britain did not recognize it in 
establishing her rule over several hundred millions of other 
peoples, I reply that in every one of these cases the new 
government has been far better for the people themselves 
than the government which it superseded; that no one of 
these territories is held by America or Great Britain against 
the will of its inhabitants, except where they are plainly 
unfitted to exercise the functions of self-government; and 
that even in these cases, the ruHng Power has declared its 
readiness to offer self-government as soon as the people 
concerned can establish and maintain it. The Cubans 
already have it. The Filipinos are getting it as rapidly as 
they can use it. Great Britain's colonies highly prize their 
inclusion in the Empire and would never dream of separating 
themselves from it. In Ireland, for which Great Britain 



442 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

has been so sharply assailed, the real trouble does not lie 
in the attitude of the British Government but in the divi- 
sions among the Irish themselves, no one faction being able 
to set up a government which the other faction will accept. 
The British Government has, in effect, told the people of 
Ireland that it will approve any practicable plan which 
they themselves will agree upon. Until they do that, the 
attempt to give self-government to Ireland would simply 
result in civil war. 

As for the subject peoples of Great Britain and the United 
States, Sir Michael F. O'Dwyer, Lieutenant-Governor of 
the Punjab, after speaking of the evils from which the peo- 
ple of India chiefly suffer — ignorance, disease, crime, abuse 
of office, corruption by those in authority, excessive litiga- 
tion, and the law's delay, said: ^^Some people tell us that 
the panacea for these and all other evils is self-government. 
I readily admit that self-government within the Empire, in 
a form suitable to the traditions and aptitudes of the various 
component parts, is a legitimate ideal. But the ideal can 
only be realized when the three indispensable conditions, 
laid down by so great a champion of popular rights as Mill, 
are fulfilled. Those are: (1) That the great majority of 
the people shall desire it; (2) that they shall be capable of 
exercising it; (3) that they shall be able and willing to un- 
dertake the responsibilities, among them external and in- 
ternal defence, which it entails. Speaking of my own 
Province, while I would welcome speedy progress, I may 
say that those conditions are not likely to be fulfilled for 
many a long day. Meantime, while the people with the 
aid of government are fitting themselves for self-govern- 
ment, the meaning and responsibilities of which at present 
but few imderstand, it is our duty to do what we can to 
insure to them good government which all desire and which 
all have a right to expect.^' ^ 

There is room for wide difference of opinion, and even for 
oppression and injustice, when any given nation claims the 
right to decide for itself when its interference with some 

1 Address, September 13, 1917. 



DEEPENING COMPLICATIONS WITH CHINA 443 

other nation is justified. Even the best of governments is 
not free from the more or less subconscious influence of 
national self-interest, and the wisest of statesmen are falH- 
ble men. The remedy here is for an international court and 
a league of nations to sustain it, so that when a nation 
transgresses the rights of another nation, or manages its 
own affairs in such a way as to menace the peace of the 
world, appeal can be taken to an impartial and broadly repre- 
sentative body which can decide what measures are required. 
The controversy between China and Japan illustrates 
the desirabihty of having some such method of international 
procedure. China is not small and ought not to be weak; 
but the huge masses of her people are not yet sufficiently 
coherent and efficient in national administration to enable 
them to conduct their government effectively, or to protect 
themselves against the aggressions of stronger nations which 
have selfish motives for exploiting the coimtry. The revo- 
lution of 1911-12 was carried through with remarkable 
speed and effectiveness, but governmental chaos followed. 
There were five presidents within six years. Parliaments 
spent their time in bickerings, and were short-lived. A 
provisional constitution was formed, but a permanent one 
was not completed. The cleavage between the North and 
the South found expression in parties which warred for 
supremacy. The northern party was in possession of the 
Peking government, and when President Li arbitrarily 
dissolved Parliament, June 12, 1917, a majority of that 
body refused to obey the order, went to Canton, and there 
resumed the sessions. Two governments resulted, one in 
Peking and the other in Canton. The former claims legality 
and, as the de facto successor of former governments, is 
recognized by other nations as the government of China in 
international matters. The latter claims to represent the 
true repubHcan and independent spirit of the Chinese peo- 
ple, and asks recognition on that basis. Peking assails 
Canton as a rebellion, and Canton assails Peking as a 
militarism dominated by Japan. ^' Japan is virtually ruling 
China through the military party in Peking/^ charges the 



444 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

editor of the Peking Gazette (now removed to Shanghai). 
''Japan is our enemy," adds a prominent member of the 
Canton government. The strife between the two sections 
has waxed bitter, and there has been considerable bloodshed. 

Meantime, other pressing needs are being neglected. 
An American who has spent many years in China writes: 
''The period on the whole is discouraging from the point 
of ^dew of China as a nation. I believe in the Chinese 
people; they have great latent potentialities. Chinese 
brains, ability and capacity for great and deep thought are 
the equal of any. But the official class is the curse of China 
and her greatest obstacle to progress. All the advancement 
that China has made the past two decades has been made 
in spite of the drawbacks due to the ruling class. The 
land shows the effects of ages of wilful neglect. The hills 
are denuded, and rainfall and wind work havoc, whereas 
in normal conditions they should facilitate productivity. 
There are no roads, and transportation is largely restricted 
to neighboring \dllages and cities. Markets are poor and 
famines prevail. In short, China, by years of sheer neglect, 
has made itself a country to be exploited. In this age of 
the world's development, such a large part of the earth's 
surface cannot be left to lie idle or go to waste. China 
doesn't begin to reaHze it. We may be sorry for China for 
losing her national sovereignty, but the seeds of death that 
have been sown by the officials in the past must bear 
their fruit in due season." 

The resultant problem is international. The era of isola- 
tion has passed forever. The nations of the world have 
come into such close relations that it is no longer possible 
for one-c[uarter of the human race to be in a disorganized 
condition, the prey to eveiy governmental buccaneei on the 
high seas of the world, without creating conditions which 
other nations are obliged to take into accoimt. I am 
among those who have immense confidence in the ability 
of the individual Chinese to take care of himself in all cir- 
cumstances, and to do so in a peaceable way and with due 
regard to the rights of other individuals. I also have large 



DEEPENING COMPLICATIONS WITH CHINA 445 

confidence in the ultimate ability of China as a whole to 
become a well-governed modern country, both able and 
willing to take a high place among the great nations of the 
earth. Critics in Western lands, who pessimistically shake 
their heads about the confusion in China as an evidence 
of the incapacity of the Chinese to manage their own affairs, 
might discreetly remember that even the wise and capable 
men of the American colonies did not succeed in establish- 
ing a constitution imtil thirteen years after their declara- 
tion of independence, and that it is not yet thirteen years 
since the Chinese overthrew the Manchu Dynasty and be- 
gan to lay the foimdations of a repubhc. China is an 
enormous and backward country, which cannot begin a 
new era in a new region as the American colonists did, but 
must laboriously and against unprecedented obstacles 
change from antiquated to modem methods where she is, 
and with no Washington to guide her. She is like a ship 
without a captain or pilot, helplessly drifting on the high 
seas, apparently unable to right herself, and, in her present 
water-logged condition, a menace to other ships. 

In these circumstances, the Japanese quite naturally say 
that, as China's next-door neighbor, they are more vitally 
concerned than any other people, and that as long as there 
is no world court or league of nations to give the required 
assistance under international auspices, they must do it 
themselves. I sympathize, therefore, with the feeling of 
the Japanese that they cannot ignore this incontestable 
situation. 

And yet, I sympathize also with the Chinese, who resent 
dictation from a single Power whose methods wound their 
national pride, and whose motives are believed to be in- 
fluenced by self-interest. I have often said, and I expect 
to continue to say, that the Chinese could work out their 
own problem if other nations would give them a reasona- 
ble chance to do so, but that with several other governments 
constantly interfering and bullying for selfish ends, China 
is seriously handicapped and Japan afforded an excuse for 
claiming priority of interest. Ardently do I hope that a 



446 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

world court and a league of nations will be so constituted 
that conditions of this kind can be wisely handled with due 
regard both to the rights of the nation concerned and to the 
rights of other nations that are involved. 

Meantime, we can only urge Japan to be just and fair to 
a sister people in a trying period of transition and readjust- 
ment, and to refrain from taking improper advantage of 
proximity and superior power. It is disquieting to find 
that some careful students of Chinese affairs believe that 
the Japanese are not free from responsibility for the dis- 
tm'bed conditions in China. After noting a credible report 
that there were in 1918 more than 30,000 organized brigands 
in the province of Shantung, and that they were suspiciously 
well supplied with rifles and cartridges, Doctor Arthur H. 
Smith writes: ^^The natives who have been subjected to 
this grilling for two years or more are well aware that many 
of these weapons and most of the ammunition have been 
specially imported for them (the bandits) from 'a certain 
country,'" and that ^'but for the help of the natives of 'a 
certain country,' the Shantung people are sure that things 
could never have come to such a pass."^ The Japanese re- 
ferred to may have been acting as individuals or as agents 
of private companies which have mimitions to sell; but their 
alleged relationship to the disturbances, the fact that Japan 
is in virtual control of Shantung, and the further fact that 
these distm'bances are assigned as one of the reasons for 
her maintenance there of a considerable military force 
make it difficult to contemplate the situation without un- 
easiness. 

It would be well also if other nations would be careful 
to refrain from acts and policies which might intensify an 
already tense and somewhat inflammable state of mind in 
this part of the world, and which might strengthen the 
feeling of the Japanese that they must aggressively push 
their interests in self-protection. It was a Western Power 
that forced Japan to take Korea and Southern Manchuria. 
Will Western Powers now force Japan to take China? 

^ Quoted in Millard's Rei/ievj, Shanghai, September 7, 1918. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

JAPAN AND SIBERIA 

The Russian Revolution of 1917 wrought a change of 
startling magnitude in the Far-Eastern situation. This 
change formed no part of the plan of the revolutionists; 
it was a result of the course that they pursued. Their 
withdrawal from the great war, their internal dissensions, 
their inability to prevent the break-up of the country into 
several independent units, and their helpless submission to 
the demands of Germany combined to create a new and 
extraordinarily difficult problem for the Entente govern- 
ments. The European aspects of this problem do not he 
within the range of our present discussion. We are now 
concerned with its Asiatic aspects, and these were of enor- 
mous advantage to Japan, since they called for an occu- 
pation of eastern Siberia, which was certain to redound to 
her advantage. Over 600,000 tons of provisions, ma- 
chinery, and military supplies were said to be piled up at 
Vladivostok, most of it in the open air, and other huge 
quantities had been accumulated at Harbin and at various 
stations as far west as Irkutsk. Most of these had been 
sold to Russia by the Japanese, but they could not be sent 
on with any certainty that they would get to their destina- 
tion; or, if they did, that there would be any responsible 
government to pay for them, or that they would not fall 
into the hands of the Germans, to whom they would be 
equivalent to a substantial reinforcement. Nor was it ex- 
pedient to leave millions of dollars' worth of provisions and 
equipment to spoil on the docks and the ground, for ware- 
house facilities were far from adequate. It appeared 
reasonable that Japan should protect these supplies, some of 
which fairly belonged to her in the circumstances. 

447 



448 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Japan, too, had a considerable number of her nationals 
in Siberia. The Japanese Foreign Office reported that July 
1, 1917, there were 9,717 Japanese in Russian territory, in- 
cluding 3,979 Koreans, distributed as follows: in Vladivos- 
tok, 3,283; at other places under the jurisdiction of the 
Japanese Consulate-General at \^adivostok, 1,762; under 
the jurisdiction of the Consulate-General at Moscow, 129; 
under the jurisdiction of the Consulate at Nikolaievsk, 
4,543. Many of these Japanese had acquired business in- 
terests in which they naturally expected the protection of 
their home government. 

Another consideration was more serious. Russia had 
sent many of her German and Austrian prisoners of war 
into Siberia. Most of them were west of Lake Baikal, but 
others were scattered along the line east of it. Their exact 
number was unknown. Rumors ranged from 80,000 to 
1,000,000. The latter estimate was certainly a great ex- 
aggeration, but the smaller one was large enough to cause 
concern. AVhatever the number of Germans and Austrians 
was, the disorganization of the government had given them 
virtual liberty. It is true that they were still prisoners in 
theory, but they were not confined in jails or camps, and 
enjoyed considerable freedom as residents of villages and 
towns, where their superior intelligence and industrial effi- 
ciency had given them some prominence and where, in 
many cases, they lived with the wives of Russian men who 
were absent in the army. The Russian population between 
Lake Baikal and Vladivostok was only about 3,500,000, 
including women and children. What was to hinder the 
capable Germans from organizing under their own officers, 
taking possession of a large part of Siberia, and possibly 
moving along the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, 
where there were not only immense accumulations of eveiy- 
thing that an army needed but a fortress regarded as one 
of the most impregnable in the world ? An Associated Press 
despatch from Harbin, February 20, 1918, said that 2,000 
Germans had been armed and were drilling at Irkutsk, and 
according to an official report received from a foreign con- 



JAPAN AND SIBERIA 449 

sul; the Germans were making preparations to bring much 
larger forces there. A report that 150 Japanese had been 
killed in a clash with German-aided Russian Maximalists 
at Blagovieschensk in March, 1918, added to the excite- 
ment, although it was afterward ascertained that only one 
Japanese was killed, and two wounded. 

Perhaps the danger from this source was magnified. It 
would not have been easy for scattered Germans to conduct 
effective military operations against a powerful military 
nation Hke Japan, many thousands of miles from their 
home base, and with a single line of communication liable 
to be broken at a dozen places; for many of the Russian 
revolutionists did not love the Kaiser^s brand of autocracy 
any better than the Tsar's. Germany could send httle help 
to her nationals in Siberia, for she had her hands full in 
Europe. Indeed many foreigners in the Far East felt that 
the German scare was so exaggerated and exploited so 
persistently and on such a wide-spread scale as to suggest 
the suspicion of propaganda. The plea that intervention 
was necessary to restore order was met by the retort that 
this was Germany's excuse for marching into Russia after 
peace had been agreed to, and that the Allies scoffed at it. 
A man long resident in eastern Asia wrote in the spring of 
1918: "The reason for that German scare is out now. 
Japan worked it up so as to present the famous ^ Group 
Five ' demands in a new form under the guise of protecting 
China against the Germans." It is hardly fair, however, 
to attribute wholly to Japan a demand for intervention in 
Siberia, which was certainly caused, in considerable part 
at least, by the fear of the French, British, and American 
as well as Japanese peoples that Germany might gain an 
alarming ascendancy in northern Asia unless decisive 
measures were adopted to check her advance. AVhatever 
the exact number of Germans and Austrians in Siberia, 
there were enough of them to make a good deal of trouble. 

"WTiere the suggestion of intervention originated is a 
disputed question. Diplomats well understand how to 
make soimdings of opinion and bring about desired situa- 



450 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

tions before committing themselves to official acts or 
written statements that might fall under unfriendly eyes. 
No authorized person, however, has challenged the state- 
ment of Viscount Motono, the Japanese Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, in the Imperial Diet, March 26, 1918, that "the 
general belief that intervention was proposed in Japan is 
unfoimded. . . . The Imperial Government neither sug- 
gested nor proposed military action in Siberia. . . . Never- 
theless, it regards with gravest apprehension the eastward 
movement of Germany. Hitherto, Japan has received no 
joint allied proposal, but if such a proposal is received it 
will be considered most carefully. This will be especially 
the case if the Siberian situation becomes worse, requiring 
decisive steps on behalf of the interests of the Allies, in 
which event the Imperial Government will not hesitate to 
take prompt and adequate measures in a whole-hearted 
manner." 

The wanton murder of Mr. Ishido, a Japanese merchant 
of Vladivostok, April 4, by five Russians, one of whom was 
in the uniform of a Bolshevik soldier, hastened the crisis, 
and Admiral Saito, commanding the Japanese navaJ vessels 
in the port, promptly landed an armed force to prevent 
further depi-edations. British marines also went ashore 
as Great Britain, too, had a consulate to guard. 

When the formal question of intervention came out into 
the open arena, varying opinions were expressed. All the 
correspondence that passed between the governments con- 
cerned and the conversations between their representatives 
have not been made public, and are not likely to be; but 
the general positions taken are known and the newspaper 
discussions were along the same lines. 

The American Government caused its opinion to be 
given that such an occupation of Russian territory would 
be inconsistent with the motives and aims of the United 
States in the prosecution of the war, that it was not fight- 
ing for the protection of property or for territorial advan- 
tage, and that the Allies would be placed in an awkward 
position if they favored Japanese occupation of Russian 



JAPAN AND SIBERIA 451 

territory in the East while denouncing German invasion of 
Russian territory in the West; the alleged reasons in both 
cases being substantially the same. This view found large 
support in the public press, although a contrary view was 
vigorously urged. 

European opinion showed the same cleavage; but closer 
contact with the war and clearer realization of its perils 
gave greater prominence to the consideration of immediate 
military necessity. German power must be prevented at 
all hazards from securing a foothold in eastern Siberia, and 
Japan was the only nation which could prevent it. This 
was the prevailing view in France, and it had influential 
advocacy in Great Britain, which was Japan^s ally, not 
only in the war but under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance 
which long preceded it. Objections there doubtless were, 
but war emergencies must be deemed paramount. Lord 
Robert Cecil, British Minister of Blockade, declared: ^'The 
Japanese alone can act effectively in the present crisis. If 
they are intrusted by the AlHes with the duty of going to 
the assistance of Russia against Germany, I am sure they 
will ca^rry out the task with perfect loyalty and great effi- 
ciency. It would be in the highest degree foolish, if not 
criminal, if the Entente failed to take every step possible 
to frustrate this German scheme." 

And yet there had been for some time a growing imeasi- 
ness among British merchants and public men about the 
overshadowing ascendancy which war conditions were giv- 
ing to Japan in the Far East — an ill-concealed fear that by 
the time the war ceased British interests in that part of 
the world would be gone beyond recovery. They now sug- 
gested that Vladivostok be occupied by a joint expedition 
of Japanese, British, and American troops, so that it would 
be clear that the move would be by the AlHes as a whole, 
and that the benefit would not accrue to any one of them 
alone. Of course, Japan would supply the bulk of the oc- 
cupying force, but it was urged that even a small force of 
British and American troops would give an international 
character to the expedition. 



452 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

China liked this suggestion and wanted to be represented. 
She had not only become an ally by her declaration of war 
against Germany^ but she had special interests at stake, 
since Manchuria was supposed to belong to her and to be 
under her civil and military jurisdiction, except for certain 
places and railroad rights of way which had been extorted 
from her. If the government that held some of these leases 
was unable to protect foreign interests, and intervention 
became necessary, who was so vitally concerned as China? 
If she herself was too disorganized by internal troubles to 
act alone, she certainly had a right to act in conjunction 
with any other Power. 

Japan acquiesced in this, and March 25, 1918, the Japa- 
nese and Chinese Governments entered into a joint agree- 
ment, which was withheld from publication for a time. 
When knowledge of it leaked out and became the object 
of suspicion, the Chinese Government authorized the fol- 
lowing statement. May 19: '^In view of the circulation of 
false reports, it is necessary to inform the Chinese people 
of the facts of the negotiations. Since the conclusion of 
peace between the Russian Maximalists and the enemy, the 
fear has existed in Japan and China of an eastward intru- 
sion of German influence. On account of the propinquity 
of their territoiy, the governments recognized the necessity 
of a definite arrangement for joint defense. This joint de- 
fense concerns military movements in Siberia and Man- 
churia, and has no reference to other matters. The scheme 
will become null and void with the termination of the war. 
On the other hand, the convention will not be forced un- 
less the influence of the enemy actually penetrates Siberia. 
It is not a treaty but an entente, which will become a scrap 
of paper if there is no enemy menace. The sole reason for 
the non-publication of the contents is the preservation of 
the secret from the enemy. The convention does not in- 
volve the loss of sovereign territorial rights and Japan gains 
no pri\dleges." 

The Japanese Government supplemented this by an 
official statement, June 8, to the same general effect. 



JAPAN AND SIBERIA 453 

Japan looked askance at the proposal for European rep- 
resentation in the expedition, on the ground that it implied 
distrust of her intentions. And it did. It had no other 
basis whatever. Japan was fully able to do the job her- 
self, and she quite naturally resented the apparent insinua- 
tion that a handful of European and American troops should 
go along to watch her and to see that she did not take 
imfair advantage of the opportunity. The Tokyo Hochi 
editorially quoted, August 5, Prime Minister Lloyd George's 
statement that "there is only one country having access to 
Russia on a grand scale. That is Japan, and the difficul- 
ties with regard to that nation are well known.' ^ "What 
are these difficulties?" the editor sharply inquired. "Wh.y 
should Count Terauchi and President Wilson permit them- 
selves to be regarded as the creators of these difficulties?" 

Japan had cogent reasons, however, for not pressing into 
Siberia alone against the judgment of her alhes. She did 
not want to jeopardize her amicable relations with Great 
Britain and the United States. Her statesmen clearly saw 
that intervention in Siberia was inevitable sooner or later, 
and that when it came, Japan's proximity to the theatre 
of operations, her abihty to use whatever force might be 
necessary, and the fact that the British and Americans 
were obhged to concentrate their efforts in France would 
necessarily give Japan whatever measure of leadership she 
needed. She could afford to wait, therefore, until the 
London and Washington governments realized that fm^ther 
delay was dangerous. 

The outcome proved the wisdom of Japan's prudence. 
By the latter part of July conditions in Siberia imperatively 
required Allied action. A considerable mmiber of Czecho- 
slovak soldiers refused to accept the humiliating terms of 
the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty which Germany forced upon 
the helpless and subservient Russian Revolutionary Govern- 
ment. When the Bolshevik government in Petrograd tried 
to coerce them into obedience, hostilities broke out between 
the opposing factions. Some of the Czecho-Slovaks kept 
up the struggle in Russia, and others managed to make 



454 THE MASTP:RY OF THE I'AIl EAST 

their way across Siberia in the hope of joining the AlHed 
armies in France. Some day a story of epic interest may 
be written regarding that comparative handful of brave 
and determined men, cut off from all communication with 
the outside world, tr}dng to keep on good terms with the 
friendly or neutral peoples through whose territories they 
had to pass and from whom they had to secure some sup- 
plies, and opposed all the w^ay not only by German and 
Austrian influence but by the Bolshevik Red Guards, who 
fiercely fought them at every opportunity. It was un- 
thinkable that these heroic men should be left to struggle 
and die unaided — martyrs to their devotion to the cause of 
the AlHes. 

Meantime, the situation in Siberia was becoming more 
tumultuous. The Siberians had declared their indepen- 
dence of Russia and set up a provisional government. But 
the discordant elements in the population could not coalesce. 
A medley of military forces were in the field — Bolshevik and 
anti-Bolshe\dk, pro-German and pro-Ally. July 18, Gen- 
eral Horvath, one of the anti-Bolshevik leaders, proclaimed 
himself dictator of Siberia. This angered the provisional 
Siberian government and brought protests from the French, 
British and Japanese Ministers in Peking. 

Fifteen thousand Czecho-Slovaks, finding on their ar- 
rival at Vladivostok that the Bolsheviki were in control of 
the city, marched into it June 30, captured the headquarters 
of the Soviet, and seized the municipal offices, the bank, 
and a quantity of ammunition. There was some fighting 
in which the Czecho-Slovaks had 3 men killed and 155 
wounded; while the Soviet forces had 51 killed and 159 
wounded. British, American, Japanese and Chinese war- 
ships in the harbor landed small forces to protect their 
consulates. The victorious Czecho-Slovaks postponed their 
plans for proceeding to France and began to move westward 
in order to co-operate with the other Czecho-Slovak forces 
which were struggling at several points along the Trans- 
Siberian Railway. The various factions among the Si- 
berians grew more angry and clamorous; the Germans and 



JAPAN AND SIBERIA 455 

Austrians redoubled their activity, and the whole country 
was in tumult. 

All this time negotiations between the Allied governments 
were in progress. President Wilson was the one waited 
for. August 3 the State Department in Washington an- 
nounced the conclusions that he had reached, to which the 
Japanese Government had assented, and which the other 
Allied governments had accepted in principle. The text of 
the statement issued by the Acting Secretary of State was 
as follows: 

"In the judgment of the Government of the United States . . . 
military intervention in Russia would be more likely to add to the 
present sad confusion there than to cure it, and would be more likely 
to turn out to be merely a method of making use of Russia than to 
be a method of serving her. . . . Military action is admissible in 
Russia now only to render such protection and help as is possible to 
the Czecho-Slovaks against the armed Austrian and German pris- 
oners who are attacking them, and to steady any efforts at self- 
government or self-defense in which the Russians themselves may 
be willing to accept assistance. Whether from Vladivostok or from 
Murmansk and Archangel, the only present object for which Ameri- 
can troops will be employed will be to guard military stores which 
may subsequently be needed by Russian forces, and to render such 
aid as may be acceptable to the Russians in the organization of their 
own self-defense. . . . The United States and Japan are the only 
powers which are just now in a position to act in Siberia in sufficient 
force to accomplish even such modest objects as those that have been 
outlined. The Government of the United States has, therefore, pro- 
posed to the Government of Japan that each of the two Governments 
send a force of a few thousand men to Vladivostok, with the purpose 
of co-operating as a single force in the occupation of Vladivostok and 
in safeguarding, so far as it may, the country to the rear of the west- 
ward-moving Czecho-Slovaks, and the Japanese Government has 
consented. In taking this action the Government of the United 
States wishes to announce to the people of Russia in the most public 
and solemn manner that it contemplates no interference with the 
political sovereignty of Russia, not even in the local affairs of the 
limited areas which her military force may be obliged to occupy — 
and no impairment of her territorial integrity, either now or here- 
after, but that what we are about to do has as its single and only 
object the rendering of such aid as shall be acceptable to the Rus- 
sian people themselves in their endeavors to regain control of their 



456 THE INIASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

own affairs, their own territory, and their own destiny. The Japa- 
nese Government, it is understood, will issue a similar assurance." 

The preceding evening, the Official Gazette at Tokyo pub- 
lished a declaration emphasizing the Japanese Govern- 
ment's ^^ sincere friendship toward the Russian people"; 
the danger '^that the Central European Empires, taking 
advantage of the defenseless and chaotic condition in which 
Russia has momentarily been placed, are consoHdating their 
hold on that country, and are steadily extending their ac- 
tivities to Russia's eastern possessions"; the necessity of 
aiding the Czecho-Slovak troops, who "justly command 
eveiy sympathy and consideration from the co-belligerents, 
to whom their destiny is a matter of deep and abiding con- 
cern;" and closing with the statement: 

"The Japanese Government, being anxious to fall in with the de- 
sire of the American Government, have decided to proceed at once to 
make disposition of suitable forces for the proposed mission, and a 
certain number of these troops will be sent forthwith to Vladivostok. 

"In adopting this course, the Japanese Government remain con- 
stant in their desire to promote relations of enduring friendship, 
and they reaffirm their avowed policy of respecting the territorial 
integrity of Russia, and of abstaining from all interference in her 
internal politics. They further declare that upon the realization of 
the objects above indicated, they will immediately withdraw all 
Japanese troops from Russian territory, and will leave wholly unim- 
paired the sovereignty of Russia in all its phases, whether political 
or military." 

The assurances of friendly sentiments toward Russia 
were of course diplomatic, but they were imdoubtedly sin- 
cere on the part of both governments. The good-will of 
America had been long known. In the case of Japan, 
friendly relations with the government of the Czar had 
been cultivated for several years, as it was to the interests 
of both Powers to work together for the time in Far Eastern 
affairs. In the agreement of July 3, 1916, Russia had 
delegated to Japan the right of military protection of her 
Eastern possessions, thus enabling Russia to withdraw her 



JAPAN AND SIBERIA 457 

military forces from the East for employment on the West- 
ern front in Em'ope. The unpubHshed parts of the agree- 
ment recognized Japan's equality of right in the navigation 
of the three great rivers of northern Manchuria, the Amur, 
the Nonni, and the Sungari, an important recognition. In 
view, however, of the fact that, after the revolution, large 
sections of Russia, including Siberia, had seceded and set 
up independent governments, a question may arise as to 
the precise meaning in August, 1918, of the phrase, "the 
territorial integrity of Russia." To what extent is Siberia 
to remain a pait of Russia ? 

Protestations that the occupation was to be "merely 
temporar}^ as a war measure" are not to be taken too seri- 
ously, however sincerely made. Governments always make 
such declarations when the}^ enter territories of weaker 
peoples, but conditions usually arise to postpone perform- 
ance. Of the many seizures by various nations in China, 
Manchuria, Korea, Siam, the Philippines, and the Pacific 
Islands, which one has ever been rehnquished except under 
compulsion? Grant that in some cases the reasons for 
sta}dng are sound; the fact is none the less indisputable. 
The original declaration may have been honestly made as 
an expression of intention at the time ; but a later adminis- 
tration is apt to decide for itself w^hether the time has come 
to act under it. 

There were ample reasons for President Wilson's cautious 
refusal to favor the grandiose plan of a large military ex- 
pedition. Even if so many troops and supphes could have 
been spared from the Western front in Europe and trans- 
ported the long voyage to Vladivostok, it would not have 
been as delightfully simple a task as armchair ci\alians 
imagined to get them across the interminable expanse of 
Siberia on a single railroad, whose hundreds of bridges and 
tunnels could be easily destroyed by the Germans. Gen- 
eral Peyton C. March, Chief of Staff of the American Army, 
plainly said that "the idea of trying to estabhsh an eastern 
front in Russia with a handful of Americans is simply 
ridiculous.'' 



458 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

A more ominous aspect of the question received less 
public attention, but it did not escape the notice of the 
British and American Governments. I refer to the probable 
effect of such action upon the Russian people. The reasons 
for intervention were gratifyingly apparent to the Allies. 
But would they be to the Russians? If the people of 
Russia had been in a position to know all the facts and to 
weigh them intelligently, it is conceivable that they might 
have concurred in intervention and perhaps even wel- 
comed it. But about 80 per cent of them are illiterate, 
and the information that reaches them is usually distorted 
to suit the ideas of the persons who disseminate it. Ger- 
man propagandists literally swaraied throughout Russia 
and Siberia and labored to prejudice the popular mind 
against the Allies and in favor of Germany. They did not 
fail to see the use that they could make of the proposed oc- 
cupation of Russian territory, and they promptly proceeded 
to inflame public sentiment against "the unwarranted in- 
vasion of Russian soil by professed Allies which had now 
become enemies. '^ As for the educated men who were in 
power, they were believed to be more pro-German than 
pro-Ally. They certainly had no special love for the 
Entente Allies, and they repeatedly declared their belief 
that on both sides "this is a war of the capitalistic and im- 
perialistic classes, which are sacrificing the common people 
to their selfish interests." The danger was, therefore, that 
any move on the part of the Allies which could be rep- 
resented or misrepresented as inimical to Russia might 
play directly into the hands of Germany by leading the 
Siberians and large sections of the population of European 
Russia to make common cause with her in "resisting ag- 
gression." 

Almost incredible as this may appear to Americans, it 
was by no means improbable. It is significant that Rus- 
sians in America strongly protested against any campaign 
in eastern Siberia, whether conducted by the Japanese alone 
or by a joint expedition. One could imagine how much 
more resentful the people of Russia might be, since the 



JAPAN AND SIBERIA 459 

Germans could get their special version of the case before 
them, and the Allies could not get theirs; for Germany 
controlled all avenues of approach, and could tell the Slavs 
whatever she pleased. The ambitions attributed to Japan 
have long been deemed ominous by the peoples on the 
mainland of eastern Asia. A Western newspaper corre- 
spondent, who visited Siberia early in 1918, wrote: ''It is 
astonishing how deep-rooted the anti-Japanese sentiment 
in Siberia has become. The Japanese menace was very 
real to the people of Pri-Ajnur. A Russian from Irkutsk 
told me that his wife used the threat of a Japanese invasion 
to quiet the children. In Harbin, wild action on the part 
of the Committee of Soldiers' and Workmen's Delegates 
was held in check more than once by a reminder that any 
serious breaches of the peace would result in the coming 
of Japanese troops from Manchuria. I talked with a num- 
ber of Russians of several classes about the possibility that 
Japan might have to guard the accumulated stores in 
Vladivostok. Nowhere in Siberia did I find a Russian in 
favor of this." ^ 

The Bolshevik leaders, both in Siberia and Russia, 
promptly denounced the proposed intervention. When the 
Japanese and British warships landed small forces at 
Vladivostok to protect their own nationals, after the mur- 
der of Mr. Ishido, April 4, the local Council of Soldiers' 
and Workmen's Delegates protested to the consular corps, 
and the Council of People's Commissaries in Moscow, 
claiming to represent "the All-Siberian Soviets," declared 
its indignation and ordered ''all the Soviets in Siberia to 
offer armed resistance to an enemy incursion into Russian 
territory." July 29 the Bolshevik Premier, Lenine, said 
to the Central Executive Committee of the Soviets that a 
state of war existed between the Russian RepubHc and the 
Alhed Powers. He added: "The fatal plans of Anglo- 
French imperiahsm can only be frustrated if we succeed 
in crushing the Czecho-Slovaks and their counter-revolu- 
tionary partisans on the Volga, in the Urals, and in Siberia. 

1 Article in the New York Times, March 17, 1918. 



460 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

This is the urgent task and all others must be relegated to 
the background. All our forces must be devoted to the 
war." ' 

This utterance was enthusiastically cheered. The con- 
suls-general of France, Great Britain, and the United States 
asked Foreign Minister Tchitcherin for an explanation, 
and August 2 he sent a long reply in which he bitterly 
charged that the course of the British and French at Arch- 
angel and Vladivostok was ^^a completely unjustifiable 
act"; that ^^ without a declaration of war hostihties are 
opened against us"; that ^'despite the existing state of 
peace, Ajiglo-French armed forces have invaded our terri- 
tory, taken our towns and villages by force, dissolved our 
workers' organizations, imprisoned their members, and 
driven them from their homes without any reason possibly 
warranting these predatory acts"; and that "these people, 
who did not declare war against us, act like barbarians 
toward us." 

The attack on the British Embassy in Petrograd, August 
31, with the murder of Captain Francis Cromie, the attache, 
and the attack on the British Consulate in Moscow, Sep- 
tember 4, both apparently at the instigation of the govern- 
ment, showed that the Bolshevik authorities were fiercely 
anti-British. As for America, the Russian leaders regarded 
the United States with suspicion and dislike, in spite of 
President Wilson's expression of friendship. Trotzky and 
several others had formerly been in America. They had 
lived in the squalid tenements of its poorest and most con- 
gested quarters. The America of their experience was a 
land of the sweat-shops of New York, the mines of Penn- 
sylvania, and the stock-yards of Chicago — of toihng masses 
in bitter poverty, a "capitaHstic imperiahsm," where the 
"rich oppressed the poor and controlled the government in 
the interest of pri\dlege. ' ' From their radical socialistic view- 
point, America, while politically democratic, is industrially 
autocratic, and they were against its social organization 

1 Cable of De Witt C. Poole, Jr., American Consul at Moscow, to the Wash- 
ington Department of State, July 31, 1918. 



JAl^AN AND SIBERIA 461 

as well as against that of imperial Russia and militaristic 
Germany. They hated an economic system which they 
regarded as vesting absolute ownership and control of a 
business or factory in the one or more individuals who own 
it and counting all the workmen as mere employees who 
have no voice in the management, no share in the profits 
except such wages or bonus as the owners may choose to 
give, and who may be discharged at any time at the will 
of the employer. This, to the Russian socialists, is the 
type of autocracy which they are determined to overthrow, 
and this they believe to exist in the United States as well as 
in other countries. When the All-Russian Congress of 
Soviets assembled in Moscow, March 11, 1918, President 
Wilson cabled a message of greeting. The Soviets received 
it with hearty applause but replied, in the name of "the 
Russian Socialist Soviet Republic," "first of all to the 
laboring and exploited classes in the United States." They 
spoke of "all peoples" as "suffering from this imperialistic 
war," and called upon "the laboring classes in all bourgeois 
countries," apparently including the United States, to 
"throw off the capitaHstic yoke and estabhsh a socialistic 
state of society" as "the only one capable of assuring a 
permanent and just peace." 

"Why have the Bolshevik failed so utterly to understand 
President Wilson ? " a New York editor asked a distinguished 
newspaper correspondent who had recently returned from 
Petrograd. "Among the Bolsheviki the United States has 
the reputation of being a nation of money-grabbers," he 
repHed. "You see, the only part of the United States 
which the Bolshevists know is Hester Street in New York. 
That was where they lived in the United States. That is 
where their relatives live to-day. They judge the United 
States by Hester Street." "Socialist Russia," declared 
Trotzky, March 19, "can never place itself under obliga- 
tions to capitaHstic America." 

It was comforting to our minds to hear it said that the 
Bolshevik government did not truly represent the people 
of Russia, and that it was a contemptible tyranny of so- 



462 THE xMASTERY OF THE EAR EAST 

cialistic radicals anyhow. Unfortunately, wretched trav- 
esty of government as it was, it happened to be the only 
government that Russia had at the time, and it was in 
possession of the capital, the seals of state, and whatever 
authority existed. Any dealings with Russia had, per- 
force, to be with it, for the simple reason that there was no 
other government to deal with. 

It was disconcerting, too, to reflect that it might please 
Germany to have the Allies make a military demonstration 
in Russian territory, which the Russians would regard as a 
hostile act, and thus widen the breach between them and 
the Allies. Nor were the Bolsheviki to be despised as a 
mere handful of men in power. Their local councils were 
scattered all over the country. It is significant that in the 
spring of 1918, while the events referred to in this chapter 
were transpiring, an election took place in Vladivostok, 
and was carried by the Bolsheviki by a decided majority. 
Parties and leaders may change; Constitutional Democrats, 
Maximalists, Bolsheviki, Soviets, and Councils of Work- 
men's and Soldiers' Delegates may come and go; Milyu- 
koffs, Kerenskys, Lenines, and Trotzkys may rise and fall, 
but radical socialism remains the underlying principle of 
the men now at the top of the social heap in Russia. The 
peasant at the bottom of the heap wants land, and any 
government that lets him have it can do pretty much as 
it pleases in international relations. 

A further disquieting fact was not overlooked, and that 
was that the treaties which the German Government 
forced upon the Ukraine, Russia, and Rimiania in February 
and March, 1918, ceded enough territory to Germany's 
Allies to open a new route from Berlin via the Black Sea 
ports to Samsun, Trebizond, Batum, and thence to Meso- 
potamia, Persia, Afghanistan, India, and indeed almost 
any part of Asia that the Teutons might care to reach. 
They already possessed practically all of the coveted 
BerHn-Baghdad route, except Baghdad itself, and they 
now obtained another independent and more easily protected 
route to Asia, from which it would be exceedingly difficult 
to dislodge them. 



JAPAN AND SIBERIA 463 

Japan could not be reasonably blamed for regarding this 
prospect with profound anxiety. From the view-point of 
the political and military necessities which her geographi- 
cal position imposes, she has ample ground for believing 
that Vladivostok and its hinterland are related to her na- 
tional safety and development. She has more than once 
frankly declared that, as compared with Western nations, 
she has a paramount interest in the Far East. One has 
studied Far Eastern affairs during recent decades to poor 
advantage if he does not know that occupation of any part 
of Manchuria, and of a strongly intrenched position at 
Vladivostok, by a European Power has long been a source 
of weU-founded anxiety to the Japanese. To imagine that 
they were averse to having an opportunity to end it would 
be to attribute to them a saintliness of self-abnegation 
which few, if any. Western nations would show in similar 
circumstances. Kenkichi Mori wrote: ^^No statement of 
the President [Wilson] prevents Japan from taking precau- 
tionary measures in Siberia. It must be remembered that 
Japan is immediately affected by the German invasion of 
Russia. . . . Accordingly, Japan reserves the right of ac- 
tion and can act whenever she thinks it necessary for her 
self-preservation. . . . Japan is not going to invade 
Russia, but is going to intervene if the disturbance created 
in that country by Japan^s enemies menaces her security, 
together with the interests of her allies. ... It would be 
a great mistake to think that the issues of the war are 
going to be decided in Europe alone. The war is being 
fought not only on the Western front, but also in the East, 
and disintegrated Russia gives to the Central Powers some 
important strategic points from which to strike at the pos- 
sessions of the Allies in the Orient, so that the enemies will 
be at liberty to eventually, but in short time, threaten the 
Pacific.'' 

Intervention having been decided upon by the govern- 
ments concerned, there was no delay in acting. The Japa- 
nese, of course, could act easily and quickh^, as they had 
their whole army near by, and the British and French 
Governments contented themselves with comparatively 



464 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

small detachments, chiefly from their available forces in 
the Far East. The Japanese force was naturally the largest 
and its general was commander-in-chief of the Allied expedi- 
tion. Vladivostok was occupied as a base, and regiments 
pushed out from it to several strategic points, the Japanese 
occupying Blagovieschensk, the capital of Amur Province, 
September 18. There were no aggressive operations on a 
large scale, as the opposition was not sufficiently united, 
organized, and equipped to offer effective resistance. The 
expedition, therefore, simply took such steps as appeared 
necessary for the protection of the Allied interests and the 
maintenance of order, while the conflicting parties in Si- 
beria and the anxious governments in Europe were trying 
to see whether any sort of coherency could be brought out 
of the chaos and a civil administration established under 
auspices that would not make it a menace to the peace of 
the Far East. 

Time, and perhaps a good deal of it, will be required for 
the working out of the various and complicated problems 
that are involved. The close of the World War in Novem- 
ber, 1918, and the downfall of the Prussian military autoc- 
racy eliminated the German menace from the Far Eastern 
problem. But Siberia is still Siberia — a vast, fertile, sparsely 
populated, poHtically weak and disorganized region, lying 
just where its relation to Far Eastern problems renders it 
of crucial importance. In so far as eastern Siberia is con- 
cerned, Japan is quite right in insisting upon having a dis- 
tinct voice in the settlement, just as the United States 
proposes to have a distinct voice in settHng those which 
affect the Western hemisphere. Japan hopes that the 
reasonableness of her claim will be recognized and respected. 
She would sincerely regret the necessity of sustaining it 
by any action which would be deprecated by her alHes; 
but she feels that she cannot be indifferent to the possi- 
ble bearing of the situation upon her vital national inter- 
ests. Her limited territory, her overcrowded and rapidly 
increasing population, and her virtual exclusion from the 
very large part of the world that is controlled by the Eu- 



JAPAN AND SIBERIA 465 

ropean and ^American nations, compel her to look to the 
adjoining parts of northern Asia as her most practicable 
sphere of development. 

China has rights there which should not be ignored, but 
if I were a Japanese I should feel that my country's claim 
to eastern Siberia and northern Manchuria was stronger 
than the claim of any Western nation. Russia has no title 
to these regions except that she took them under extorted 
treaties because she felt that she needed them in the inter- 
ests of national expansion. Such treaties have a certain 
legal and diplomatic vahdity, and undoubtedly must have 
some recognition in international procedure, especially after 
they have received the sanction of time and general ac- 
quiescence. China, however, never gave anything more 
than an enforced acquiescence to Russia's occupation. 
The people of Manchuria and of eastern Siberia, such as 
they were, were never consulted at all; and what recogni- 
tion Japan gave was dictated by temporary military condi- 
tions. Of moral right to the region in question, Russia 
never had more than a shadow. The United States has 
enough territory of its own; and yet an American can un- 
derstand how he would feel if a European or Asiatic Power 
were to occupy Mexico. He would want that Power to 
get out, and would quite readily salve his conscience in 
case any local conditions were to give his government an 
opportunity to facilitate the ousting. However strong 
one's sympathies may be with China, and mine are very 
strong, one must concede that, as between Japan and other 
world-powers, the equities of the case are overwhelmingly 
with Japan. 



PART IV 

CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE PROBLEM 
OF THE FAR EAST 



CHAPTER XXIX 
THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 

We have considered the chief poHtical forces in the Far 
East whose poHcies and methods have sometimes operated 
independently, at other times conflictingly, and at still 
others jointly. But another force is operating, with less 
noise but with more depth, a force more far-reaching in 
character and results — the force of Christian missions. It 
is the most pervasive and reconstructive of all forces. 
Others effect more or less extensive changes in externals; 
but this effects an internal transformation. Others may 
make man outwardly a more decent animal, and give him 
greater efficiency in the struggle for supremacy. But, as 
St. Paul said, ^'if any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new 
creature.'' This transformation involves not only the man 
himself but all his relationships and environments. The 
^^ great voice" that St. John heard declared: '^Behold, I 
make all things new." The missionary objective was finely 
expressed by St. Peter when he wrote: '^We look . . . 
for a new earth wherein dweUeth righteousness." The 
men of Thessalonica uttered a profounder truth than they 
knew when they complained that Paul and Silas had 
"turned the world upside down," The world of that day 
needed to be turned upside down because it was wrong 
side up. 

The influence of Christian missions has already attained 
magnitude as one of the recognized forces operating in 
eastern Asia. The strength of Christianity in Japan and 
China is discussed in separate chapters. We may note here 
that in 1917 the Ministry of the Interior of the Chinese 
Government reported there were 2,717 Christian churches 
in China, 4,288 chapels, 8 Bible societies, 161 missionary 
hospitals and medical schools, 9 missionary colleges, 1,171 

469 



470 THE MASTERY OF THE EAR EAST 

middle schoolS; and 2;557 priniaiy schools, besides many 
branches of the Y. M. C. A. The report further showed 
that there were 1,836 men and 2,716 women missionaries, 
902 native preachers, 8,381 native assistant preachers, 
1,108 native Bible women, 2,799 teachers and 186,130 stu- 
dents in the missionary schools, and 388 physicians working 
in the missionary hospitals. The total number of converts 
to Christianity was placed at 35,287,809, this number in- 
cluding, of course, both Protestants and Roman Cathohcs. 

The last figure is very much too high an estimate, if the 
term ^^ converts" is used in a proper sense. But it is sig- 
nificant that to government officials, Christian churches 
look so large, and that so many Chinese are wilhng to be 
called Christians, even though their connection with the 
church is merely nominal. The China Continuation Com- 
mittee reported, in 1917, a Protestant Christian constituency 
in China of 595,684, and Les Missions de Chine et du 
Japon in the same year gave the Roman Catholic consti- 
tuency as 1,789,297. 

In the three countries that are commonly grouped as the 
Far East, Protestant missions are represented by 7,356 for- 
eign missionaries, 21,024 native workers, 13,678 congrega- 
tions with 698,566 communicants and definitely known 
adherents, 6,214 schools and colleges with 215,819 students, 
729 hospitals and dispensaries, which treated in a recent 
typical year 1,255,827 patients, and 37 printing-presses, 
whose annual output of Bibles, books, tracts, and periodicals 
aggregates 107,700,000 pages. The Roman Cathohc Mis- 
sions report 1,944,281 baptized members, including children. 

This is really wonderful when we consider the compara- 
tively brief period in which missionary w^ork has been con- 
ducted, the difl[iculty of inducing peoples of other races to 
change their hereditary beliefs, the limited resources of the 
mission boards, and the fact that they have had the support 
of only a part of the churches in Europe and America. 
There are more Christians in each one of the countries un- 
der consideration than there were in the Roman Empire a 
century after Pentecost. Now that Christianity has be- 



THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 471 

come well rooted in all these Far Eastern lands, and with 
increasingly competent native as well as foreign leadership, 
rapidly increasing influence may be reasonably expected. 

Everywhere Christian missions have gone, they have been 
a reconstructive force. This has been particularly true of 
missionary work in the Far East. 

Missions are a reconstructive economic force. Others be- 
sides missionaries have had a large part in this phase of 
the reconstructive process, but the missionaries have been 
potent influences. The lamps, kerosene oil, watches, clocks, 
furnaces, glass windows, sewing-machines, and other conve- 
niences in their houses; the agricultural implements in their 
gardens and machinists' tools in their industrial schools; 
the improved machinery and methods in their printing- 
presses; their explanations of the steam-engine, the electric 
motor, the railway, and the telegraph — ^these attracted at- 
tention and developed desire. The missionaries sought no 
profit from these opening markets; but traders quickly 
turned them to commercial advantage and built up business 
interests which were of large value to Eastern and Western 
nations alike. Said Ex-President WiUiam H. Taft, at a 
missionary meetmg of the Methodist Episcopal Church: 
"You are pioneers in pushing Christian civilization into the 
Orient, and it has been one of the great pleasures of my 
life that I have had to do with these leaders of yours who 
represent your interest in China, India, the Philippines, and 
in Africa. These men are not only bishops and ministers, 
they are statesmen. They have to be. They make their 
missions centres of influence such as to attract the attention 
of native rulei's. The statistics of conversions do not at 
all represent the enormous good they are doing in pushing 
Christian standards and advancing high ci\ilization in all 
these far-distant lands." 

Missions are a reconstructive social force. They have 
effected striking changes in the popular attitude toward 
woman, in the status of the wife, in the education of girls, in 
the care of the sick, and in creating a sentiment against 
harmful drugs. William Elliot Grifns, who lived in Japan in 



472 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

the old feudal days, says that conditions at that time were 
unspeakably bad — ignorance, squalor, disease, and im- 
morahty. He declares that old Japan had no principle of 
regeneration; and he quotes approvingly a statement of 
Doctor Verbeck's that new Japan came from across the sea 
with missionaries. 

The defective and dependent classes were almost wholly 
neglected until the missionaries came with their humani- 
tarian teaching and Christlike ministries. It was the mis- 
sionary who first showed interest in the bHnd, the deaf and 
dumb, the orphaned, the leprous, the sick, and the insane. 
Institutions for their care are scattered all over Asia, and 
all of them were founded either directly by missionaries or 
indirectly as the result of their teachings. The Honorable 
V. K. Wellington Koo, Chinese Minister to Washington, 
has emphasized 'Hhe influence of the missionaries as a fac- 
tor in the social regeneration of China. Many of the 
epoch-making reforms, such as the suppression of opiimi 
and the abolition of foot-binding, have been brought about 
with no little encouragement and help from them. In the 
field of medicine in China, American missionaries have 
rendered important ser\dce. Their hospitals and dispen- 
saries, nearly four himdred in all, not only give shelter, 
comfort, and peace to hundreds of thousands of the sick 
and suffering, but also serve as centres from which radiates 
with increasing luminosity the light of modern medical 
science.''^ This testimony is as applicable to other lands 
as to China. Professor Nitobe, of the Imperial University 
in Tokyo, after recounting the indebtedness of Japan to 
Christianity for schools, hospitals, and churches, added: 
"The leaders of the campaign to promote sanitation and 
hygiene, of the anti-prostitution movement, and of the 
temperance societies are recruited from among the Chris- 
tians." 

Missions are a reconstructive intellectual force. The mis- 
sionary has planted the church and the school side by side. 
He is a teacher as well as a preacher. The first modem 

^ Address in Chicago, December 19, 1916. 



THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 473 

schools in the Far East were founded by missionaries, and 
their present schools are among the best to-day. It is 
sometimes said that modern science has been the chief 
factor in the intellectual awakening of the Far East; but 
it was the missionary who first took modern science to 
those lands; who translated the text-books, taught the sci- 
ences, and explained the uses of steam and electricity. 
The Honorable C. T. Wang, Vice-President of the Chinese 
Senate, writes: "The mission schools throughout the coun- 
try have led the way and in many cases have been the 
cradle of the modern Chinese educationalists. In all the 
political upheavals people have a good opportunity of 
watching the students that come into power. They find 
that those students who, through their touch with the mis- 
sion schools have embraced the real spirit of love and sac- 
rifice of Jesus Christ, are the ones that can best be trusted."^ 
The Honorable V. K. V/ellington Koo, in the address 
already referred to, gave emphatic testimony on this point : 
"For the introduction of modern education China owes a 
great deal to American missionaries. It is a general con- 
viction on the part of the Chinese people that through their 
translation into Chinese of books on religious and scien- 
tific subjects, through their untiring efforts in establishing 
schools and colleges in China, and through their work as 
teachers and professors, American missionaries, in co-opera- 
tion with those from other countries, have awakened the 
interest of the Chinese masses in the value and importance 
of the new learning. To a great extent the present wide- 
spread educational movement in China is traceable in its 
origin to the humble efforts begun a few decades ago by 
the Christian evangehsts from the West.'' Substantially 
the same words might have been written of Japan. Mis- 
sionaries were its first educators, founded its first schools, 
translated its first text-books, and compiled its first gram- 
mars. In Korea, practically the entire educational move- 
ment of the country was organized, directed, and maintained 
by missionaries until recent years. The governments in 

* Article in the Missionary Review of the World, August, 1916. 



474 THE MASTERY OF THE 1' AR EAST 

the Far East have now undertaken large educational pro- 
grammes of their own, but their officials unhesitatingly tes- 
tify that they were indebted to missionaries for the sugges- 
tion and impetus, for the best text-books, and for the most 
highly qualified teachers. 

Missions are a reconstructive moral force. They make 
plainer the distinction between right and wrong, clarify 
conscience, and quicken desire to do right. The light of 
Christianity makes virtue appear more attractive and vice 
more vile. There is evil in every land where Christianity 
exists; but it is there in spite of Christianity, not because 
of it. The most prejudiced critic knows that Christ should 
not be judged by the conduct of those who reject Him, or 
by those who, while professing to accept Him, show by their 
actions that they have only partially or nominally done so. 
The consistent Christian is a clean man, advocating good, 
hating wrong, fighting intemperance, gambling, dishonesty, 
and the social evil, purifying the moral atmosphere of the 
community, and furnishing the type of reliability that is 
indispensable to the stability of the State. The Honorable 
S. Shimada, M. P., of Tokyo, said in a pubHc address in 
Yokohama that during the China-Japan War, the victories 
achieved were attended by disgraceful reports of fraud and 
embezzlement on the part of the officials to whom, was in- 
trusted the holding and disbursement of the funds; that to 
obviate such conduct in the last war (Russia- Jap an). Chris- 
tian men were selected to fill such places; and that from 
the beginning to the end the administration was efficient 
and satisfactory.^ 

Bishop Awdry, the English bishop of South Tokyo, says 
that in the Russia-Japan War the Japanese Government 
ruled that all native interpreters who accompanied foreign 
correspondents must be Christians, and that this action was 
taken on the ground that for this important post men of 
absolute reh ability were desired, who would fairly represent 
the interests of Japan. ^ It is not surprising that Sir Ernest 

^ Reported by the Reverend H. Loomis, D.D., of Yokohama, in The Chinese 
Recorder, March, 1907. 

' Reported in The Spirit oj Missions, July, 1904. 



THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 475 

Satow, for many years the British Ambassador to Tokyo, 
and a recognized authority on Japanese matters, said: '*In 
Japan, Christianity is now recognized as a very great moral 
motive in the national life." 

Missions are a reconstructive political force. With politics 
as such, missionaries have nothing to do. They carefully 
avoid political affiliations. Mission boards do not encour- 
age appeals to officials nor do they seek the aid of their 
own consular and diplomatic representatives except in cases 
of urgent need which involve necessary treaty rights. The 
missionaries strongly believe that all due respect should be 
paid to the lawfully constituted civil authorities, that care 
should be observed not to embarrass them needlessly, that 
the laws of the land should be obeyed, and that it is better 
for the followers of Christ patiently to endure some in- 
justice than to array the churches in antagonism to the 
governments under which they labor. 

On the other hand, Christianity is always and everywhere 
a reorganizing force. It may not produce this result as 
quickly among a conservative as among a progressive 
people; but sooner or later, the consequences are inevitable. 
Modem Japan is swiftly in some respects, and slowly but 
surely in others, reorganizing her institutions in accordance 
with the new spirit, so that the revolution in that coxmtry 
is a comparatively peaceful and normal one, as it was in 
England. The ruling classes in China and Russia, like 
those in France prior to the Revolution, shut their eyes to 
the facts only to be violently hurled from power. What is 
happening to Korea is described in other chapters. The 
ideas of God, of man, and of duty which Christianity in- 
culcates invariably effect profound changes in the body 
poHtic. They did this in Europe and America, and they 
are doing it in Asia. Christianity alters a man's outlook, 
upon Hfe, gives him new conceptions of responsibihty, 
strengthens moral fibre, and nerves him to oppose tyranny 
and wrong. What Draper said of Europe may be said 
with equal tiaith of modern Asia: '^The civil law exerted 
an exterior power in human relations; Christianity pro- 



47G THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

duced an interior and moral change." The Honorable 
Winston Churchill of the British Government, formerly 
Under-Secretary for the Colonies, said: ''Every penny 
presented to the cause of mis-ions is a contribution to good 
government; every penny spent on missions saves the 
spending of pounds in administration; for missions bring 
peace, law, and order." Similar opinions of British ad- 
ministrators in India have been widely quoted. 

If Asiatic testimony is desired, it may be found in abun- 
dance. Of the scores of utterances that might be cited, three 
may suffice here: General Li Yuan Hung, the commander- 
in-chief of the Republican Army during the revolution, and 
afterward successor of Yuan Shih Kai in the presidency: 
'^ Missionaries are our friends. I am strongly in favor of 
more missionaries coming to China to teach Christianity. 
We shall do all we can to assist them, and the more mission- 
aries we get to come to China the greater will the Republi- 
can Government be pleased. China would not be aroused 
to-day as it is were it not for the missionaries, who have pen- 
etrated even the most out-of-the-way parts of the Empire, 
and opened up the country." The Honorable S. Shimada, 
M. P.: "Japan's progress and development are largely due 
to the influence of missionaries exerted in the right direc- 
tion when Japan was first stud^dng the outer world." Mar- 
quis Okuma, former Prime Minister: "The coming of 
missionaries to Japan was the means of linking this country 
to the Anglo-Saxon spirit to which the heart of Japan has 
always responded. The success of Christian work in Japan 
can be measured by the extent to which it has been able 
to infuse the Anglo-Saxon and the Christian spirit into the 
nation. It has been the means of putting into these fifty 
years an advance equivalent to that of one hundred years. 
Japan has a history of two thousand five hundred years, 
and one thousand five hundred years ago had advanced in 
civilization and domestic arts, but never took wide views nor 
entered upon wide work. Only by the coming of the West 
in its missionary representatives and by the spread of the 
gospel, did the nation enter upon world-wide thoughts and 



THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 477 

world-wide work. This is a great result of the Christian 
spirit." 1 

Missions are a reconstructive spiritual force. I do not 
mean to separate this phase of missionary influence from 
other phases. The spiritual motive pervades all forms of 
the work and furnishes the mainspring of activity; but 
missionaries are preachers and evangelists above all else. 
They beheve that man's supreme need is the quickening of 
conscience, the discernment between right and wrong, the 
clarification of moral \dsion, the power that is conveyed in 
the gospel of Christ. They have opened the Bible not 
merely as a text-book on morals but as the revelation of the 
character and will of God. They have presented Christ not 
only as the best man that ever Hved but as the incarnation 
of God. They have proclaimed the gospel not simply as 
a code of ethics but as what St. Paul declared it to be: 
"the power of God unto salvation.'' They have gone to 
all classes of people — ^the rich and the poor, the noble and 
the peasant, the sick and the sorrowing. The history of 
their labors is a record of adventurous expeditions, of pa- 
tient toil, of unflinching com'age, of uncomplaining self- 
denial, of endurance of persecution, and finally of large 
achievement. As I have \dsited the missionaries, travelled 
with them, and watched their work during two visits to 
Asia, I have thought more than once that if the eleventh 
chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews were to be brought 
down to date, it would surely include the names of many 
of these men and women of whom, like the Christians of 
the first century, "the world is not worthy." 

Missions are a reconstructive international force. " For- 
eign missions are influences toward better world relation- 
ships," says ex-President William H. Taft. If I may again 
quote from the remarkable address of the Chinese Minis- 
ter to Washington: "Even more significant than the trade 
relations between our two countries has been the work of 
American missionaries in China, than whom no class of 
foreigners are more friendly, s}anpathetic, and unselfish in 

^ Japan Daily Mail, October 9, 1909. 



478 THE MASTERY OE THE EAR EAST 

their attitude toward the Chinese people. The spirit 
which has underlain and still underlies the relations between 
China and the United States is nowhere better illustrated 
than in the devotion of this comparatively small group of 
Americans to their useful services in China and in their 
readiness to uphold the cause of justice and fairness. . . . 
The American missionaries' record of service properly de- 
serves the gratitude of China and the admiration of the 
world.'' 

The reason for this influence inheres in the nature of the 
faith which the missionary preaches. Christianity is a 
world religion. In this respect it differs from other re- 
ligions which are popularly called ethnic or racial. True, 
some of them have spread beyond the bounds of the nations 
in which they originated; but none of them have gone over 
the world, and none of them possess the elements that would 
adapt them to the world. Christianity alone has the stamp 
of universality upon it. Amid a multitude of tribal and 
national deities, the Old Testament prophets proclaimed 
Jehovah as the supernational God, "the Lord of all the 
earth." The New Testament writers brought this world 
idea into special prominence. While the life of our Lord 
was confined to Palestine, He made it clear that the scope 
of His purpose was world-wide. He said: "Other sheep I 
have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring"; 
"God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten 
Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but 
have everlasting life." In an age when men regarded men 
of other races as foes. He said : "Love your enemies." He 
told the Jews that the disliked Samaritan was their "neigh- 
bor." He gave Paul his commission to the Gentiles. With 
a vision of the world He said: "And I, if I be lifted up 
from the earth, will draw all men unto Me." 

The fundamental ideas of New Testament teaching are 
universals — the world-wide reign of God, the essential 
imity of the human race, Christ as "the propitiation for 
our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the 
whole world," salvation for "whosoever will," a law of 



THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 479 

righteousness which knows no exemptions; and a love which 
recognizes no racial or sectarian limits. Universality is of 
the very essence of the gospel. Christianity stands or falls 
as a world faith. It alone has gone to every part of the 
world and has proved its adaptation to peoples of every 
race and clime. 

Christianity is, therefore, pre-eminently a supernational 
religion. We do not say international, because that sug- 
gests the plane of agreements between governments; but 
supernational in that Christianity transcends nations. 
There is, indeed, a proper nationalism, and it has many 
noble elements. Patriotic love for one's own country and 
a zeal to advance its legitimate interests are great virtues. 
Missionary societies are in warm sympathy with all true 
nationalism. They thoroughly respect the reasonable de- 
sire of any people to manage their own affairs unhindered 
by unjust interference from outsiders. But it is sometimes 
difficult to draw the line between nationalism and inter- 
nationalism — the due claims of a people to control their 
own interests, and the moral obhgation to take into account 
the interests of humanity at large. It is as true of nations 
as of individuals that "none of us liveth to himself.'' Na- 
tionalism properly resents dictation in political matters, 
but it should welcome unselfish efforts to disseminate those 
truths of medicine, sanitation, education, social justice, and 
rehgion which are universal in character, and which no na- 
tion can exclude without consequences that are not only 
injurious to others but fatal to itself. 

The type of nationalism which caused the great war is 
thoroughly mgan. It makes each member of the family 
of nations a law unto itself irrespective of the rights of others. 
It baptizes national selfishness and greed as patriotism, and 
justifies cruelty and murder as "military necessity." Said 
Lord Hugh Cecil, of the British Parliament: "Nationalism, 
in a degree, is a very desirable thing; but it differs from 
any other form of esprit de corps in that it implies or permits 
a suspension of the moral law. We must get people to feel 
that there is something higher than the loyalty to their 



480 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

own countn^ — there is an obligation to the interests of all 
mankind. This doctrine is one of the most elementary 
tenets of Christianity. We want to get behind the idea 
that the higher loyalty is to our own country, to the idea 
that all men are brethren and that we owe to them a duty 
of inexhaustible, immeasurable love.'' True nationalism is 
related to supernationalism as the family is related to the 
community and the community to the state. The local 
duty is imperative, but it is consistent with the duty to the 
larger relationship. President Wilson declared in a memor- 
able address: "The principle of public right must hence- 
forth take precedence over the individual interests of par- 
ticular nations. . . . Always think first of humanity." 

This is precisely what Foreign Missions are doing. They 
inculcate that highest type of loyalty to country, which 
makes it minister to the supreme good of the race. Christi- 
anity is the antithesis of a self -centered nationalism. It sub- 
stitutes the law of brotherhood for the law of the jungle. 
Some have alleged that Christianity is impracticable as a 
working principle in social and national affairs. This is 
what Confucianists assert — that the Sermon on the Mount 
is a beautiful theory, but that it cannot be put into practice 
as Confucianism can be. It is odd to hear some professed 
Christians revert to this non-Christian argument. Did 
Christ preach an impracticable gospel? Did He tell His 
followers to do something that He knew they could not do? 
Surely we must believe that Christianity is a religion that 
can be put into practical operation in human affairs; that 
the whole gospel applies to the whole life; and that nothing 
that man touches is beyond the scope of the law of God. 

Now, Foreign Missions are the organized effort of the 
Church of God to carry out the supernational progranmie 
of Christianity; that is, the dissemination of the gospel 
thi'oughout the world and the application of it to the 
problems of humanity. It is the recognition of the world 
mission of Christianity, the international mind upon its 
highest level, the emancipation of the Church from the 
parochial and provincial into the wide spaces of the kingdom 



THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 481 

of God. It teaches that the world is one; that each nation 
is an integral part of a common race; that no people can 
live an isolated life ; that we are kin to our brethren in other 
lands; that the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of 
man include all mankind; and that righteousness and 
truth should be supreme everywhere. 

This evangel is indispensable to the peace of the world. 
President Wilson voiced the common sentiment when he 
disclaimed selfish intentions in the war. He declared that 
what we demanded in that struggle was '^ nothing peculiar 
to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to 
live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace- 
loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own 
life, determine its own institutions, and be assured of justice 
and fair dealing by the peoples of the world as against force 
and selfish aggression.^' This object rendered imperative 
the overthrow of a Prussian mihtary autocracy, whose 
character and purposes were absolutely incompatible with 
these ideals. But was nothing more needed than the over- 
throw of that autocracy? Will nations ever five in peace 
if the spirit which has heretofore animated them continues 
to prevail ? Do suspicion plus jealousy equal international 
good-will ? We say with President Wilson that we wish to 
"make the world safe for democracy." But what kind of 
democracy? Will a lawless, godless democracy make the 
world safe? On the contrary, selfish and cruel men will 
fight under any kind of government. The alternative of 
autocracy is not necessarily democracy. It may be mob- 
ocracy. Look at Russia. Look at Mexico. If people are 
too ignorant or too midisciphned for freedom, the worJd 
is not bettered unless the conditions which make freedom 
a blessing are promptly created. 

Many people appeared to imagine that the millenniimi 
would come when the house of Hohenzollem was forced to 
abdicate. It is true that the power of that house was the 
greatest hindrance to the coming of the better day for 
which the world waits. It has gone, but has the millennium 
come? Did the exile of the Czar suffice to make Russia 



482 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

an ideal State? Did the downfall of the dictator Diaz 
usher in a perfect day for Mexico? After all external ob- 
stacles have been removed, the task of fitting men for the 
right exercise of liberty remains. It was Christ Himself 
who said: '^The Kingdom of God is within you/' We 
fondly believe that America, Great Britain, and France have 
learned to use democracy aright, although probably few of 
us are free from anxiety on this subject. But assuming 
that they can do so, we must remember that in this era of 
race solidarity it is not only a question whether they are 
safe, but whether Asia, Africa, and Latin America are safe. 
Does any one believe that Colombia and Venezuela are 
ready to help in creating a desirable new world order? 
Are China, India, Persia, and Turkey? No matter how 
perfectly we apply Christian principles to our own institu- 
tions, if we leave the rest of the world out of account, it is 
vain to imagine that we shall escape the inevitable day of 
reckoning. If democracy is to mle the world in righteous- 
ness, it must be safe not only here but elsewhere. "There 
is no political alchemy," said Herbert Spencer, "by which 
you can get golden conduct out of leaden motives.'' Of 
what avail for our sons to die on the battle-field if the world 
whose freedom they secure is unable to utilize it worthily ? 

We are hearing much these days about armies and navies 
and governments and territorial adjustments. But what 
about the soul of the world — its ideals, its aspirations, its 
moral principles, that which differentiates the spiritual from 
the physical, which makes men sons of God instead of 
animals, and transmutes hatred into love? "What shall 
it profit" if we gain the whole world of civil freedom and 
physical might, and lose the soul of the world ? In Foreign 
Missions Christian men are trying to save the soul of the 
world, and they are justified in magnifying the task as one 
of the indispensable efforts of the age. 

Since Foreign Missions deals with supernational ideas, it 
is in a sense a supernational movement. Of course, the 
individual missionary is a citizen of some comitry, and 
cannot claim supernationalism for himself unless he accepts 



THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 483 

the necessaiy implications of supernationalism. The coun- 
try whose rights of citizenship he enjoys has rights regard- 
ing him and must hold him to responsibility for his acts 
and words. But his missionary objectives and work are 
supemational and they distinctly help international rela- 
tions. The true missionary does not stamp his own na- 
tional characteristics upon his work, but conveys super- 
national ideas of God and man and duty, and leaves the 
peoples who receive them freedom to organize their exter- 
nal forms in accordance with their own genius. Represen- 
tative Asiatics have repeatedly spoken in terms of warmest 
appreciation of the value of missionaiy work from this 
^dew-point. The late Mr. Fukuzawa, of Japan, said: "In 
the early days of Japanese intercourse with foreigners, 
there can be no doubt that many serious troubles would 
have occurred had not the Christian missionary not only 
showed to the Japanese the altruistic side of the Occidental 
character, but also by his teaching and his preaching im- 
parted a new and attractive aspect to the intercourse which 
otherwise would have been masterful and repellent. The 
Japanese cannot thank the missionary too much for the 
admirable leaven that he introduced into their relation 
with foreigners.''^ It would be easy to fill pages with quo- 
tations to the same effect. Foreign missionary work is 
more and more clearly coming to be understood as dis- 
tinctively altruistic in its character and aims. Christians 
in Western lands maintain it with no thought whatever of 
any return to themselves other than that of realizing the 
truth that "it is more blessed to give than to receive." 

The correlation of such a supemational enterprise to a 
justifiable national spirit involves many difficulties. These 
difficulties become acute when international relations are 
ruptured. But it is manifestly unjust that an altruistic 
supemational work should be destroyed by nationalistic 
wars. When missionary work is broken up, the real sufferer 
is not the missionary, who usually is simply returned to 
his own countr}^, but the natives — the sick and injured 

1 Japan Weekly Mail, May 21, 1898. 



484 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

turned out of hospitals, children dismissed from schools, 
and struggling native churches left without guidance. The 
Japanese Government set a good example to all other na- 
tions in the Russia-Japan War. It was fraught with dire 
issues to Japan. Defeat would have meant subjection to 
a corrupt and ruthless Russian autocracy. But although 
the Russian Church was a state church, the Japanese 
Government permitted the Russian missionaries in Japan 
to continue their work unmolested throughout the war, 
because it realized that their mission was conducted from 
motives quite distinct from the objectives of the war, and 
was for the direct benefit of the Japanese people. Indeed, 
Count Katsura, then Prime Minister, sent an official com- 
munication to the representatives of the Christian Church 
in the Empire, in which he said that, anticipating that the 
feelings aroused by the war might cause differences be- 
tween peoples of different nationaHties and religious beliefs, 
instruction had been issued to local officials regarding the 
protection of Russian residents and the members of the 
Russian Church. He declared that the need for this cau- 
tion was emphasized by the fact that the war was against 
a professedly Christian nation, and he hoped that no one 
^^will be betrayed into the error of supposing that such 
things as differences in race or religion have an}i;hing what- 
ever to do with the present complication. . . . Regarding 
religion as an essential element of civilization, '^ he con- 
tinued, '^I have uniformly tried to treat all religions with 
becoming respect; and I believe it to be an important duty 
of statesmen, under all circumstances, to do their utmost 
to prevent racial animosities.'' 

Of course, a government has the undoubted right to satisfy 
itself regarding the neutral character of a missionaiy, to 
watch him closely, and to insist that he shall accept the 
limitations which his supernational work involves. If he 
violates them, his punishment should be as stern and swift 
as the punishment of any one who in a time of war misuses 
the privileges accorded him as a non-combatant. Some 
missionaries could not meet this test, as experience in sev- 



THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 485 

eral lands has showed. But if the supernational principle 
is recognized, it is comparatively easy to test individuals 
by it and to eliminate those who cannot meet the required 
conditions. 

The only hope for the future of the world lies in the uni- 
versal recognition and application of those ideas of interna- 
tional order, justice, and brotherhood which Christ pro- 
claimed, and of which the foreign missionary enterprise is 
the organized expression. All other ties snapped in the 
war. Science, philosophy, education, commerce — each and 
all failed to hold the world together. Labor and social- 
ism came nearer than any of them to maintaining a kind 
of unity; but they too were soon rent apart. The home 
churches were as widely sundered as other interests. For- 
eign Missions alone preserved the international idea. Not 
that missionaries and their boards were neutral; they were 
not. But they steadily pressed the constructive and uni- 
fying principles on which the new world order must be built. 
In a shattered world. Missions represented the truths that 
must ultimately tie the nations together, if they are ever 
to be brought together at all. 

We asserted with earnestness that we wanted an enduring 
peace and that it would be better to fight on until the in- 
dispensable factors of such a peace could be secured. But 
peace is not an end in itself; it is a by-product of righteous- 
ness. So Isaiah declares : "The work of righteousness shall 
be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and con- 
jfidence forever.'^ No political adjustments between gov- 
ernments can create enduring peace unless they rest upon 
a foundation of righteousness and good-will ; and these are 
precisely the foundations which the missionary enterprise 
is laying. Treaties are no stronger than the moral character 
of the peoples that make them, and missionary work makes 
moral character. It is inspiring to think of the prophetic 
day when nations shall "beat their swords into ploughshares 
and their spears into pruning-hooks ^' ; when "nation shall 
not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn 
war any more." The prophet intimated that this day will 



480 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

dawn when, and only when "all nations shall walk in His 
paths." This is exactly what Foreign Missions are attempt- 
ing to do — lead all nations to "walk in His paths." Unless 
this task shall be achieved, our sons will have died on the 
battle-field in vain. 

President Wilson evidently feels that Foreign Missions are 
related to the conditions of permanent world-peace, for at 
a time when he was hea\dly burdened with the cares of the 
war and was summoning the people of the United States 
to redouble their energies in its prosecution, he said to a 
deputation of ministers: "I think it would be a real mis- 
fortune, a misfortune of lasting consequence, if the mission- 
ary programme for the world should be interrupted. . . . 
That the work undertaken should be continued, and con- 
tinued, as far as possible, at its full force, seems to me of 
capital necessity, and I for one hope that there may be no 
slackening or recession of any sort." The special service 
that Foreign Missions can render in rightly influencing the 
pressing world problems in eastern Asia was well expressed 
by Viscount James Bryce, when he said that the jarring 
contact of many nations in the Far East to-day impera- 
tively calls for the strengthening of foreign missionary work, 
which, he dedared, must be the chief influence in smoothing 
that contact, in allaying irritation, and in creating those 
conditions of international good-will which are essential to 
the preservation of world peace; and he added: "The one 
sure hope of a permanent foundation for world peace lies 
in the extension throughout the world of the principles of 
the Christian gospel." 



CHAPTER XXX 
ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN KOREA 

The story of Roman Catholic missions in Korea illus- 
trates both the merits and the defects of the missionaiy 
zeal of the Roman Catholic Church. It aboimds in in- 
stances of miselfish devotion and splendid courage, of sore 
hardship and thrilling adventure; and it also aboimds in 
the political scheming and peculiaiities of method which 
have characterized so much of Roman Catholic propaganda 
in Asia. 

So far as we can learn, the first missionary to enter 
Korea was a Portuguese Jesuit, Gregorio de Cespedes, who 
at the request of General Konishi came from Japan to the 
army at Fusan in the spring of 1594. He and a Japanese 
convert named Foucan Eion labored zealously among the 
Japanese soldiers; but they made little effort to reach the 
Koreans, although some of the Korean prisoners who were 
sent to Japan came under the influence of the Jesuits there 
and were converted. The decisive movement that led to 
the founding of the mission originated in China, where some 
of the Roman Catholic missionaries became interested in 
the Koreans who periodically visited Peking with tribute 
for the Emperor. A few tracts in Chinese, prepared by 
the Jesuit missionaries in Peking, were brought to Korea 
by a returning embassy, in 1777, and fell into the hands of 
some Korean students, chief among whom was a young 
man whose name has been paraphrased as ^^ Stonewall.'' 
He and his companions were deeply impressed by the doc- 
trines that were presented in these tracts, and they dili- 
gently studied them. Efforts to obtain further informa- 
tion from Peking were fruitless for a time; but in 1782 
Stonewall went to Seoul, and the next year he foimd an 
opportunity to send a letter to the Roman Catholic bishop 

487 



488 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

at Peking, Alexander de Gorla, by his friend, Senghuni, 
the son of one of the members of an embassy to Peking. 
This friend managed to deliver the message, and was him- 
self baptized. Returning to Korea, he brought with him 
a generous supply of religious books, tracts, images, cmci- 
fixes, and pictures, although, so far as is known, he was not 
given the Bible. 

Stonewall read the books and tracts with avidity. The 
number of those interested increased. The zealous con- 
verts adopted the names of famous saints, one calling him- 
self Ambrose, and others Augustine, Thomas, Paul, Francis 
Xavier, etc. Stonewall took the name of John the Baptist, 
and his friend Senghuni wished to be known as Peter. 
The new faith soon began to attract attention, and with 
attention began suspicion and enmity. The foreign names 
gave special offense, and the Christians were called for- 
eigner-Koreans. Some of the Korean scholars tried to 
argue the new converts out of their faith, but the Chris- 
tians had studied their books and tracts to good effect, and 
they easily held their ground. One of the Hterati was ap- 
parently impressed by the teaching, for he exclaimed: 
"This doctrine is magnificent, it is true, but it will bring 
sorrow to those who profess it. What are you going to do 
about it?'' A Christian, who had come from the province 
of Chimg-chong, carried the new faith to his home, where 
it soon took such firm root that in the annals of Roman 
CathoHc missions this province figures "as the nursery of 
the faith," although in several of its towns, particularly in 
the Naipo region, numbers of Christians suffered death. 
Another convert went to Chul-la, where he preached with 
equal zeal. Meantime one of the more learned of the 
Christians in Seoul made copies of the religious books, 
which thus became accessible to a larger number of be- 
lievers. 

The authorities now determined to take sternly repres- 
sive measures. Thomas Kim was accused of destroying 
his ancestral tablets, was arrested, put to torture, and 
sent into exile. In April, 1784, the government issued a 



ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN KOREA 489 

proclamation against Christianity written by a preceptor 
of the King. It warned people everywhere to have nothing 
to do with the new faith, and exhorted famihes to disown 
relatives who had adopted it. Under this heavy pressure 
the faith of several converts, including Stonewall himself, 
collapsed; but many of the converts remained faithful. 
They chose one of their number, Francis Xavier, as 
bishop. They consecrated others as priests, and preached 
and baptized with indefatigable zeal. 

In 1789 they became convinced from the books in their 
possession that their ordination was not valid, and the 
bishop and priests laid aside their ecclesiastical functions; 
but they went on with their work as laymen with no cessa- 
tion of zeal. The next year they sent Paul to Peking, 
where the astonished and gratified priests baptized him and 
explained to him the teachings of the church regarding or- 
dination. When he returned to Korea he took with him 
the right to baptize, but not to administer the other sacra- 
ment. He brought such glowing accoimts of the beauty 
and majesty of the worship in the cathedral in Peking that 
the Httle band of converts sent a letter to the bishop of 
Peking, praying that an ordained priest might be sent to 
them. Paul bore this letter also, accompanying the Ko- 
rean embassy to Peking in September, 1790. The bishop 
promised to send a priest, loaded Paul and one of his com- 
panions, -who had been baptized in Peking, with presents 
and sacred vessels, but charged them that the worship of 
ancestors must be given up. This message brought con- 
sternation to the 'little company of Korean Christians who 
had continued to bmrn incense before their ancestral tablets 
and shrines. 

Meantime enemies multiplied. Persecution increased. 
The Christians were charged with filial disrespect, a heinous 
crime in the eyes of a Korean. A considerable number of 
converts and adherents renounced their faith, but others 
stood as firmly as ever. Paul and Jacques Kim burned 
their ancestral tablets. They were promptly arrested and 
ordered to recant. They might have saved their lives by 



490 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

doing so, but they steadfastly refused, and December 8, 
1791, they were beheaded, ealhng upon Jesus and the 
Virgin Mary. However widely one may differ with the 
Roman Catholics in doctrinal and ecclesiastical matters, 
he cannot but admire the fidehty of these early Korean 
converts, who at the ages of thirty-three and forty-one, re- 
spectively, testified by their blood to the genuineness of 
their faith — :the first martyrs of Korean Christianity. 

Grievous days followed for the other Christians. They 
were relentlessly hunted down. The legs of some were 
broken with clubs, and the backs of others were scourged 
to a bloody pulp. Many were put to death, and others 
thrown into foul prisons to die of hunger or of their im- 
tended injuries. Francis Xavier was cruelly beaten and 
then banished, only to die a broken man before he reached 
the final place to which he was transferred. "Peter, 
sixty-one years old, after wearying his torturers with his 
endurance, was tied round with a cord, laid on the icy 
ground at night, while pails of water were poured over 
him, which, freezing as it fell, covered his body with a 
shroud of ice. In this Dantean tomb, the old martyr, 
calling on the name of Jesus, was left to welcome death, 
which came to him at the second cock-crow on the morn- 
ing of January 29, 1793.^'^ Even this bloody persecution 
could not exterminate the new faith. By 1794 the Roman 
Catholics claimed 4,000 converts. The spread of Chris- 
tianity in such circumstances by the Koreans themselves, 
without assistance from foreigners, is an effective testimony 
both to the vitality of the Christian faith and to the stamina 
of the Korean converts. 

The bishop of Peking had not forgotten his promise to 
send a foreign priest as soon as an available one could be 
found, and now Joao dos Remedios, a Portuguese, volun- 
teered to go to Korea. After a hard and perilous mid- 
winter journey of twenty days, he was unable to cross the 
border, and returned to Peking, where he soon after died. 
Two years later another effort was made, this time by 

* Griffis, Korea, the Hermit Nation, p. 352. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC MlSSlOxNS IN KOREA 491 

Jacques Tsiu, a Chinese priest, twenty-four years of age. 
Arriving at the frontier^ a few Christians there advised him 
not to try to cross at once as the sentinels were so vigilant 
that he would surely be caught and killed. He waited, 
therefore, at Shing-king until December 23, 1794, when he 
crossed the Yalu River in the night, and after many hard- 
ships, succeeded in reaching Seoul. He ministered secretly 
to the Christians until June, when the enemies of Chris- 
tianity learned of his presence. He was sheltered by a 
noble Korean lady who had accepted Christianity. Three 
Christians were arrested and commanded to disclose his 
whereabouts. When they courageously refused, their arms 
and legs were broken, and they were again commanded to 
reveal the priest's hiding-place. Still their fortitude was 
unshaken, and June 18 they were beheaded, and their bodies 
thrown into the Han River. 

The Chinese priest, protected by the law which made 
the house of a noble secure from search, managed to remain 
with his benefactress for three years, ministering as best he 
could to the Christians who secretly came to him. In 
September, 1796, he sent a letter to the bishop of Peking 
by two Korean Christians, who had obtained for this pur- 
pose places as servants in connection with an embassy. 
In order to make sure that the letter should reach its desti- 
nation, they copied it on silk and sewed it into their gar- 
ments. The letter was safely delivered to the bishop, 
January 28, 1797. It urged that the King of Portugal be 
asked, through English friends, to intercede with the King 
of Korea in behalf of the Christians, and to make a treaty 
which would give greater freedom to the faith, and permit 
the coming of foreign priests and teachers. Nothing came 
of the letter; but the King, Cheng-chong, who had never 
been zealous in persecuting the Christians, refused to 
countenance some of the more drastic measures proposed 
by the reactionary nobles, and there was little more per- 
secution until his death, in the year 1800. His son and suc- 
cessor, Suncho, being a minor, his grandmother became 
regent. She promptly placed in powder some of the most 



492 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

strenuous haters of Christianity; and persecution broke out 
afresh. The next year, 1801, was a dark one for the Chris- 
tians. They were imprisoned, scourged, and in some in- 
stances, beheaded. The Chinese priest, Jacques Tsiu, 
proved himself a hero. Learning that he had been pro- 
scribed by the government, he declared that he would no 
longer imperil his noble friend by his presence. Volun- 
tarily giving himself up, he was beheaded May 31. He did 
not succeed, however, in saving the lady who had so long 
befriended him, for she too was seized and beheaded, leav- 
ing an account of the life of the priest written on one of the 
skirts of her dress. Four other Korean women of high 
rank also were beheaded. 

In his distress and fear a Christian named Alexander 
Wang wrote a letter to the bishop of Peking, imploring 
him to "appeal to the Christian nations of Europe to send 
sixty or seventy thousand to conquer Korea. '^ The letter 
was discovered, the bearer summarily executed, and Alex- 
ander, in spite of the fact that he wore on his wrist the 
crimson silk cord which testified that he had touched the 
sacred person of the King, was put to death. 

The King, realizing that he might get into trouble with 
China on account of the execution of the Chinese priest, 
wrote a letter to the Emperor at Peking, humbly explaining 
that he had executed the priest not because he was a Chi- 
nese, but because he was a teacher of "the monstrous, bar- 
barous, and infamous sect of brigands who live hke brutes 
and birds of the vilest sort,'^ and who were traitorously con- 
spiring to bring into Korea a foreign army to subjugate it. 
The Emperor contented himself with extorting a fine, and 
the persecution continued. January 25, 1802, another 
royal edict against the Christians was issued, and the poor 
believers were hunted mercilessly throughout the whole 
kingdom. In 1811 some of the sorely beset leaders des- 
patched two letters to the Pope, dated respectively De- 
cember 9 and 18, imploring him to send them help. As 
on an earlier occasion, the messengers copied the letters 
on silk, sewed them in their clothing, and succeeded in 



ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN KOREA 493 

i-eaching Peking, from which the letters were fonvarded 
to Rome. But the Pope had troubles of his own at that 
time, being a virtual prisoner at Fontainebleau, and help 
did not come. Gradually, however, the fierceness of the 
persecution relaxed; and an era of comparative quiet fol- 
lowed. In 1815 persecution again broke out in Kang-wen 
and Kiimg-sang, and in 1826 there was a short outbreak of 
enmity in Chul-la; but for the most part the Christians were 
not seriously molested for a considerable period. 

Doubtless the enmity of the Korean Government was in- 
fluenced to a considerable extent not only by general op- 
position to foreign ideas and by wrath at the desecration of 
ancestral tablets, but by the fear that the new faith was 
poHtically revolutionary. The converts gave some groimd 
for this charge. The Peking priests had told them of the 
supreme sovereignty of the Pope. They believed and acted 
in accordance with their behef. "Seeing the Pope's politi- 
cal power upheld by the powerful Em-opean nations then 
under Bourbon rule, the Korean Christians, following the 
ethics of their teachers, played the part of traitors to their 
coimtry; they not only deceived the magistrates and vio- 
lated their country's laws but, as the letter of Alexander 
Wang shows, actually invited armed invasion. Hence, from 
the first Christianity was associated in patriotic minds with 
treason and robbeiy. The French missionary as the fore- 
runner of the French soldier and invader, the priest as the 
pilot of the gunboat, were not mere imaginings but, as 
the subsequent narrative shows, strict logic and actual 
fact. It is the narrative of friends, not foes, that later 
shows us a bishop acting as spy and pilot on a French man- 
of-war, a priest as guide to a buccaneering raid, and, after 
the story of papal Christianity, the inevitable French ex- 
pedition!"^ 

Though several representations had been sent to the 
Pope regarding the struggling church in Korea, the troubled 
conditions in Europe delayed action. "V\Tien the skies 
finally cleared, Korea was remembered and given separate 

1 Griffis, p. 360. 



494 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

status as a mission, under the care of the Paris Society, 
and in 1832 Barthelemy Brugiere, at that time a missionary 
in Bangkok, Siam, was appointed ApostoUc Vicar of Korea. 
He started with the zeal of a volunteer, but he never 
reached his field, dying at Shing-king, October 20, 1835. 
His place was taken by Pierre Philibert Maubant, who, 
accompanied by five Korean Christians, crossed the Yalu 
River on the ice in the following winter (1836), and, finding 
sentinels guarding every gate of Wiju, they crawled on their 
hands and knees through a sewer-drain into the city. After 
having been secretly warmed and fed by a few Christians 
there, they crawled out by the malodorous channel and 
made their way through the country to Seoul, suffering 
great hardships from exposure in the bitter cold. In the 
winter of 1837 Maubant was joined by Jacques Honore 
Chastan, who, on January 17, had succeeded in passing 
Wiju in the disguise of a Korean mourner. December 19, 
1838, Bishop Laurent Marie-Joseph Imbert arrived. Under 
the vigorous leadership of these three priests the mission 
work took on new life. 

The most pronounced opponent of Rome cannot justly 
withhold the meed of praise from those pioneer priests. 
They suffered almost everything that mortal man could 
endure in order to reach their fields. They braved innimaer- 
able perils, tramped weary days through the snows of the 
mountains, buffeted the icy floods of the rivers, slept in 
wretched vermin-infested huts, ate the coarsest food, and 
had no one to care for them in ilhiess or accident. They 
were himted by their enemies as mercilessly as wild beasts, 
living face to face with death and knowing that at any mo- 
ment they were Hable to discovery, to cruel torture, and to 
frightful mutilation. Yet their zeal never flagged. 

The mission work now prospered, and by 1838 there were 
9,000 Korean Christians. By January 16, 1839, the fac- 
tion that was most bitterly opposed to Christianity gained 
the ascendancy at court, and a furious persecution began. 
The regent who, during the minority of the King, was gov- 
erning the coimtry, had not been disposed to persecute the 



ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN KOREA 495 

Chiistians, but he was growing old and feeble, and the 
persecutors began to have their way. July 7, 1839, the 
King's uncle, one of the most relentless enemies of the 
Christians, had a decree issued ordering the severest pun- 
ishment of all persons who adhered to the Christian faith. 
Three of the most influential Korean Christians and a 
number of women and children were immediately executed. 
Then Bishop Imbert showed a sublime devotion. Beheving 
that the persecution was primarily directed against himself 
as the head of the Christians, and hoping that if he gave 
himself up his poor followers might be spared, he volun- 
tarily surrendered himself August 10, and directed his priests, 
Maubant and Chastan, to follow his example. They 
promptly and gladly obeyed. But the hard hearts of their 
foes were not touched by this instance of noble self-sacrifice. 
The three devoted priests were beaten with the paddle 
until their flesh was terribly mangled, and September 21, 
1839, they were executed. Seventy of the Korean Chris- 
tians were beheaded at the same time, and sixty others were 
strangled or died from tortures. 

Deprived of their leaders by this tragedy, hated and pur- 
sued of all men, the Christians suffered much. It is ir- 
refragable evidence of the genuineness of their faith that 
all did not recant. Some did, as might be expected, but 
the majority remained faithful. 

Nor were there wanting priests to take the places of the 
fallen. December 31, 1843, Jean-Joseph Ferreol was made 
Bishop of Korea. Having heard so much of the difficulty 
of entering the country at Wiju, he sent a trusty Korean, 
Andrew Kim, to see if an entrance could not be effected at 
Hun-chun. After a painful journey of a month through 
the deep snow of the mountains, Kim reached Hun-chun 
February 25, 1844. Crossing the Tumen on the ice, he 
conferred with a little party of Christians who, by previous 
arrangement, had assembled at Kion-wen, a town not far 
from Hun-chim, on a tributar}^ of the Tumen. All agreed 
that the difficulty and danger of entering Korea by that 
route were greater than at Wiju. Kim therefore rejoined 



490 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

the bishop; who sought to come in at the Border Gate. 
Finding that the vigilant guards examined every traveller, 
and that it would be well-nigh impossible for a white man 
to pass them without discovery^ the bishop ordered Kim 
to go on alone, while he gave up the attempt and went to 
Macao. 

Andrew Kim showed himself to be a remarkable man. 
As soon as possible after reaching Seoul, January 8, 1845, 
he "collected a crew of eleven fellow-believers, only four 
of whom had ever seen the sea and none of whom knew 
their destination, and, equipped with but a single compass, 
put to sea in a rude fishing-boat, April 24, 1845. Despite 
the storms and baffling winds, this uncouth mass of fire- 
wood, which the Chinese sailors jeeringly dubbed The Shoe, 
reached Shanghai in June. Andrew Kim, never before at 
sea except as a passenger, had brought this uncaulked, 
deckless, and unseaworthy scow across the entire breadth 
of the Yellow Sea."^ He certainly deserves a prominent 
place in the history of adventurous daring in missionaiy 
annals. At Shanghai Kim was joined by Bishop Ferreol, 
and August 17 he received the formal ordination to the 
priesthood, which was soon to be followed by his martyr- 
dom. September 1 the bishop sailed with another French 
priest, Marie Antoine Nicholas Daveluy, and on the night 
of October 12 succeeded in making a landing unobserved 
on the coast of Korea. 

Fourteen years later, in 1859, the Roman CathoHc con- 
verts were said to mmiber 17,000. The roll continued to 
lengthen until the brutal, fanatical Tai-wen-kun began 
what he designed to be a war of extermination. Multi- 
tudes of Christians laid down their lives during those awiul 
days. The French Government tried to send relief in the 
expedition of 1866; but the effort failed, and the persecu- 
tion continued with such fury that by the year 1870, it was 
beheved that 8,000 Korean Christians had been slaughtered. 
Fierce were the fires of persecution that raged about the 
devoted men and women who accepted the Christian faith 

1 Griffis, pp. 365-366. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN KOREA 497 

in the years that preceded the opening of Korea to the 
influences of the modem world. ^ 

With the end of the regency and the accession of the 
King better days dawned. Christians were still perse- 
cuted; but the King lacked both the vigor and the fanati- 
cism of the Tai-wen-kun. Since then, progress has been 
fairly steady^ and in some years rapid. In 1909, the bishop 
told me that the Roman Catholic population in Korea was 
then 42,441. The Roman Catholic constituency is now 
given as 87,270, a gain of more than 100 per cent in a 
decade. 

The Roman Catholic cathedral in Seoul occupies a com- 
manding site on high ground, and is the most conspicuous 
building in the city. It was an eyesore to the Korean Em- 
peror and to his loyal subjects, for it was deemed discourte- 
ous, a kind of lese-majeste, for any one to erect a building 
that could look down on the imperial palace. The Koreans 
made strenuous objection to this site for the cathedral, as 
the eminence on which it stands commands not only the 
palace, but practically the whole city. But the Roman 
CathoHcs, with the powerful backing of the French legation, 
refused to yield. 

The bishop at the time of my \dsit impressed me as a 
very inteUigent man. He had a fine, expressive face, and a 
cultivated manner. The Protestant missionaries said that 
he had an unsurpassed knowledge of the Korean language 
and literature, and they deeply regretted his death some 
years later. The priests that I saw were, with some nota- 
ble exceptions, evidently from the peasant class — faithful, 
industrious, and intensely devoted to their church, but not 
men of special education or refinement. They are, of course, 
celibates, and a prominent priest told me that candidates 
for the foreign priesthood are not accepted if they have 
dependent relatives. Accustomed from their earliest years 
to a very simple scale of living, they can reside in communi- 
ties and on a much smaller sum than Protestant mission- 

^ Cf. Griff is, pp. 347-376, and the sources in the account of Dallet, the 
Roman Catholic annalist. 



498 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

aries, who as a rule represent the best type of British and 
American college and university trained men. With wife 
and children, the Protestant missionary requires a separate 
house, and the wives and single women of the mission are 
also, as a rule, college graduates. While the Roman Catholic 
missionary does not receive a salary like the Protestant 
missionaiy, the order to w^hich he belongs provides his 
room, food, and clothing, and makes modest allowances for 
other needs. With no one dependent upon him, no chil- 
dren to care for and educate, he is about as comfortably 
off as other missionaries, all things considered. His hfe, 
however, is a narrower one, as his ability to buy books and 
periodicals is small, and as he is seldom permitted to return 
on a furlough to his native land. When he goes to his 
field, he goes to stay; and unless he is so fortimate as to 
be sent home on some rare mission, he spends his life in 
Korea; perhaps in a city like Seoul, with its social and in- 
tellectual advantages, but more probably in some lonely 
station where he has few or no companionships of his own 
race. 

There is much in the Roman Catholic doctrinal teaching 
and missionary method with which I do not sympathize; 
but the discussion of such matters would He outside the 
scope of this book. I am heartily glad to pay my humble 
tribute of praise to the courage and seK-sacrifice that have 
so signally marked the history of Roman CathoUc missions 
in Korea. Readers who wish to go more fully into the 
story will find ample material in pubHcations of the Church, 
and in William Elliot GriSis^s Korea, the Hermit Nation, to 
which I have frequently referred. I am glad also to be 
able to record that I have never heard of the moral delin- 
quencies of priests in Korea of which I felt obliged to write 
so plainly in my book on the Pliilippines, and which have 
long been notorious among the clergy in many parts of 
Mexico, Central and South America. The typical Roman 
Catholic priest in Korea, like his brother in France, differs 
widely in many respects from an Anglican, Congregational, 
or Presbyterian clergyman, but he is a man whose mis- 



ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN KOREA 499 

sionary ardor and devotion are undoubted. As for the 
Korean converts, their standards are very different from 
ours; but members and priests ahke can point to a history 
which leads one to say with Lord Curzon that ^'the infant 
Korean church has shown a heroism, has endured suffer- 
ings, and has produced a martyr-roll that will compare 
favorably with the missionary annals of less obscure coun- 
tries and more forward peoples."^ 

1 Problems of the Far East, p. 183. 



CHAPTER XXXI 
PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN KOREA 

A GENERATION ago few students of the non-Christian 
world would have selected Korea as a missionary field of 
strategic importance. What was there except human 
misery to attract men of the West to this small and weak 
country, with its slovenly, indolent, and apathetic people? 
Did the first missionaries and their supporters see the gold 
in the dirt of Korean character when they began the work 
in this distant and then Httle-known land? It may have 
been, for they were far-seeing men. More probably they 
were prompted by that spirit which impels the true dis- 
ciple of the Master to stretch out the uplifting hand to 
those who are farthest out and lowest down. Korea was 
a land which needed spiritual help and there were mission- 
aries ready to go; this was enough. 

The first Protestant missionary visitor was the Reverend 
Charles Gutzlaff, a Prussian, representing the Netherlands 
Missionary Society, who arrived in Korea July 17, 1832, on 
an East India Company's ship commanded by Lord Am- 
herst. He spent a month in Chul-la, distributing books 
and medicines, and teaching the people how to cultivate 
potatoes. Presents, including the Bible, were sent to the 
royal palace, but the King refused to receive them. Gutz- 
laff's knowledge of Chinese enabled him to make many 
inquiries and to gather considerable information; but his 
stay was too brief to produce permanent effect. The next 
missionary visitor was a Scotchman, the Reverend John 
Ross, of Manchuria, who in 1873 made a tour across the 
border and studied the language to such effect that he was 
subsequently able to translate the New Testament into 
Korean. 

Permanent mission work did not begin till the treaty of 
May 22, 1883, had brought Korea to the attention of the 

500 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN KOREA 501 

outside world. Horace N. Allen, M.D., a Presbyterian 
medical missionary in China, learned during a temporary 
stay in Shanghai that a physician was needed by the for- 
eign conamunity in Seoul. In consultation with the Rev- 
erend William S. Holt, a missionary in whose house he and 
Mrs. Allen were staying, it was agreed that Doctor Allen 
should make a prehminary trip of inquiry to Seoul, and 
that Mr. Holt should write to the Presbyterian Board in 
New York, suggesting that the time had come to open 
missionary work in Korea, and that Allen be assigned for 
this purpose. Meantime, Mr. Daniel W. McWilhams, of 
Brooklyn, New York, read an article in a newspaper advis- 
ing against the sending of missionaries to the newly opened 
country lest they cause a reaction. Mr. McWilhams had 
a better appreciation of the influence of missionaries, and 
in February, 1884, he offered $5,000 to the Presbyterian 
Board of Foreign Missions for this purpose, out of the sum 
received by him from the estate of Mr. Frederick Mar- 
quand. The gift was accepted, and a cable sped to Shanghai 
bearing the words: "Allen, Korea.'' Except for the tem- 
porary visit of Doctor Ross eleven years earlier, "this cable- 
gram was the first voice from Protestant Christendom to 
molest the age-old heathenism of Korea. It was destined 
to wake the echoes from end to end of the kingdom.'' Mr. 
Holt forwarded the message to Doctor Allen, who promptly 
returned to Shanghai for his family and went back to Seoul, 
arriving September 20, 1884. 

The memory of some experiences with Roman CathoHc 
missionaries in former years and reports of what had oc- 
curred in China did not incline the Korean officials to wel- 
come any more missionaries. However, the government 
did not oppose Doctor Allen, although some of the foreign- 
ers in Seoul, and particularly a German who was then ad- 
vising the government, strengthened suspicion and prejudice. 
Fortimately, the need of a physician in the foreign com- 
munity was great. The American Legation also needed a 
physician, and the American Minister, General Lucius H. 
Foote, appointed Doctor Allen surgeon to the Legation. 



502 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

This appointment gave him a standing, and he soon made 
his way to favor. 

December 4, a banquet was given at the royal palace to 
celebrate the opening of the first Korean post-office. An 
enemy of the party in power, Kim Ok Kiun, took advan- 
tage of the opportunity to attempt a revolution. In the 
tumult several high officers were assassinated, and Prince 
Min Yong Ik, a nephew of the King, who had headed the 
embassy to the United States the preceding year, was 
badly wounded. Frightened people scurried to cover, but 
the missionary bravely made his way to the palace and of- 
fered to help the wounded. He found thirteen native 
physicians excitedly crowding about the Prince, and about 
to pour boiling wax into his gaping woimds. He tactfully 
persuaded them to allow him to dress the injuries, and for 
the first time the court saw a modern surgeon at his skilful 
work. 

Days of violence followed in the city. The Japanese 
Legation, the post-office, and the residences of foreigners 
were looted, and on the 10th the American Minister, the 
British and German Consuls-General, and all the other for- 
eigners in Seoul, except Doctor and Mrs. Allen, fled to 
Chemulpo. The heroic missionary and his wife refused to 
abandon their posts. Doctor Allen wrote: ^^We couldn't 
if we would, and we wouldn't if we could. I came to do 
just such work. I can't leave these wounded people. . . . 
We shall live in the Legation with the old flag flying, and 
trust the kind Father to care for us." 

Ere long, to the surprise of every one, the Prince recov- 
ered, and Doctor Allen became the most famous man in 
the capital. The grateful King became his friend, and 
February 25, 1885, a government hospital was opened un- 
der royal patronage, with the missionary in full charge. 
The King himself named it Hoy Min So, the House of Civil- 
ized Virtue. The forty beds were quickly filled, and within 
the first year 10,000 patients were treated in the hospital 
and its dispensary. In this beneficent way, Christian work 
obtained a foothold. April 5, 1885, the first resident or- 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN KOREA 503 

dained missionary arrived, the Reverend Horace G. Under- 
wood, also a Presbyterian, and he speedily became a tower 
of strength to the infant mission. June 21, J. W. Heron, 
M.D., was added to the little company. 

Meantime, the attention of the Board of Missions of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church had been directed to the coim- 
try by the Reverend John F. Goucher, D.D., of Baltimore. 
During a trip across the continent in 1883 he had met the 
first Korean Embassy on its way to Washington, formed a 
personal acquaintance with its leader. Prince Min Yong Ik, 
and invited him and several of his official associates to visit 
his home in Baltimore. He was so much interested that he 
wrote to the Reverend Robert S. Maclay, D.D., superin- 
tendent of the Methodist missions in Japan, suggesting 
that he visit Korea and report upon its possibilities as a 
mission field. Doctor and Mrs. Maclay made the desired 
visit in June, 1884. They met with small encouragement, 
but they sent back such an account of the need that Doctor 
Goucher was confirmed m his first impressions as to the 
importance of the field. He had already offered $2,000 for 
the opening of this work. To this sum the Board added 
$2,000, and in the latter part of the year 1884, the Reverend 
H. G. Appenzeller, William B. Scranton, M.D., and his 
mother, Mrs. M. F. Scranton, were appointed the first 
Methodist missionaries to Korea. They were delayed by 
the December revolution, but Mr. Appenzeller arrived 
at Chemulpo, Easter Sunday, April 5, 1885, and Doctor 
Scranton the third of the following May. Both men de- 
veloped qualities of leadership and soon became influential, 
while Mrs. Scranton became a power for good ia connec- 
tion with the Ewha School for Girls, in Seoul. 

July 5, 1886, a trained nurse and medical student. Miss 
Annie Ellers, a Presbyterian, arrived. She became physi- 
cian to the Queen, and swung the door of royal favor 
more widely open. The first graduate physician to arrive 
was Miss Meta Howard, M.D., who joined the Methodist 
mission in 1887, and opened the first hospital for women 
in the spiing of the following year. After Miss Eller's 



504 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

marriage to Mr. Dalzel A. Bunker, who entered the Metho- 
dist mission, she was succeeded as physician to the Queen 
by Miss LilHas Horton, M.D., later Mrs. Underwood, an- 
other Presbyterian, who arrived in 1888, and by her skill 
and tact gained great influence at the palace. 

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, of the 
Church of England, as early as 1880 had received a sug- 
gestion from the Reverend A. C. Shaw, one of its mission- 
aries in Japan, regarding the founding of a mission in Korea. 
This suggestion was reinforced in 1887 by Bishops Scott of 
North China and Bickerstaph of Japan, who visited Korea 
in that year. The society did not find it practicable to 
open work at once, but on All Saints^ Day, 1889, the Right 
Reverend Charles John Corfe, D.D., was consecrated the 
first missionary bishop of Korea in Westminster Abbey, 
and he reached the field September 29, 1890, with six or- 
dained men and two physicians. Property was acquired 
at Seoul and Chemulpo and work begun. September 30, 
1891, the first Anghcan church in Korea was dedicated at 
Chemulpo, and on the following Simday the first confirma- 
tion was held, "the first candidate being a little serving- 
maid of a pious German family." Later, the island of 
Kang-wa off the w^est coast attracted the missionaries, and 
they founded work there as well as on the mainland. The 
resignation of Bishop Corfe was followed by the election 
of Bishop H. B. Turner, in 1905. After his lamented death 
in 1911, Bishop M. N. Trollope took charge of the diocese. 
In September, 1906, the Reverend S. H. Cartwright, of the 
Japan mission, began a special work among the Japanese 
in Korea, making Seoul his headquarters. The society is 
now represented in Korea by twenty-seven missionaries. 

The mission of the Southern Presbyterian Church (Amer- 
ican) was estabhshed in 1892, when six missionaries arrived. 
They began their work in Seoul, but later removed to the 
two Chul-la provinces in the southwestern part of Korea, 
where they began an effective work from the three central 
cities of Kwanju, Chungju . and Kunsan. The Presbyterians 
of Australia opened a station at Fusan, in 1889, their pioneer 



I 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN KOREA 505 

missionaries being the Reverend John H. Davies and his 
sister. Canadian Presbyterians were first interested in 
Korea by the devoted W. J. McKenzie, who went to Korea 
in 1893 under the support of his university, and whose sad 
death two years later touched all hearts. It was not until 
1897 that the General Assembly felt that the way was clear 
to found a mission. September 8 of the following year 
three missionaries reached Seoul, and after consultation 
with the Council of Missions, the province of Hamgyondo, 
on the northeast coast, was agreed upon as the field of the 
Canadian Presbyterians. 

The work of the Methodist Episcopal Church South 
originated in 1895, when Bishop E. R. Hendrix and the 
Reverend C. F. Reed visited Korea, the mission being 
formally opened the following year. Stations were estab- 
lished at such strategic centres as Seoul, Gensan, and 
Songdo. 

The beginnings of the work of the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association were made in 1901, when Mr. Phillip L. 
Gillett arrived in Seoul. He started with Bible classes for 
EngHsh-speaking Koreans and Japanese, and October 27, 
1903, he was able to organize a City Association, with an 
influential board of directors, and on the same day a Student 
Association in the Methodist Boys' School. The British 
and Foreign Bible Society, the American Bible Society, and 
the National Bible Society of Scotland also arrived early 
on the field and effectively co-operated with all the missions 
in printing and distributing the Bible. 

Thus the foundations were laid by brave and tireless 
pioneer missionaries, who had painful reason to know the 
difficulties of the field. The diary of Doctor Allen includes 
the following entry for October 11, 1885: "To-day we cele- 
brated the first Protestant communion service in Korea. . . . 
The service was impressive and productive of good. We 
used an old silver teapot given me by my mother, and one 
of our glass goblets. Mr. Loomis (of Japan) preached." 
No Korean name appears in the hst of twelve persons pres- 
ent, including three American naval officers. 



506 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Progress was slow for several years. Missionaries were 
endeavoring to communicate totally new ideas to a people 
who had been made sodden and apathetic by an inheritance 
of centuries of rank heathenism. It is difficult for Ameri- 
cans, who have been familiar with the gospel from infancy, 
to reahze how hard it is for the people of the Far East to 
understand the new conceptions which Christianity incul- 
cates. We need to remember that our own ancestors were 
slow in understanding them, and that centuries passed 
before Christianity was apprehended even by Anglo-Saxons. 
It is not surprising, therefore, that the superstition-clouded 
Korean listened dully and thought the missionary '^a 
setter forth of strange gods." If the intellectual Athenians 
mocked St. Paul when he preached to them Christ and 
the resurrection, what could be expected of the darkened 
Koreans ? 

Gradually, however, the truth made its way. Mr. Un- 
derwood baptized the first convert in 1886, and the Metho- 
dist mission received its first convert a little later in the 
same year. The first Protestant church was organized in 
Seoul, in September, 1887, and the Sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper was administered to the new behevers for the first 
time Christmas Day of that year in Mr. Underwood's house. 
Only seven persons^ including the missionaries, were pres- 
ent at that small but historic ser\dce. After ten years of 
patient labor by the missionaries of several communions, 
there were still only 141 baptized Christians in all Korea. 

The work early found a foothold in Pyengyang through 
a few Koreans, who had wandered northward into Man- 
churia and had there come under the influence of Mr. Ross, 
and had been converted. Returning to Korea, they were 
more fully instructed by the missionaries in Seoul, and then 
they undertook to communicate their new faith to their 
count lymen. 

By 1887 there were several inquirers, and a native helper 
was stationed there to preach to them. Soon after the 
Reverend Samuel A. Moffett arrived, in 1889, he went to 
Pyengyang. He found bad moral conditions, for the city 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN KOREA 507 

was notorious for wickedness. A handful of friendly Ko- 
reans gathered around him, but the difficulties were numer- 
ous and formidable. However, Mr. Moffett took a Httle 
Korean house, lived among the people, and by patience and 
tact made his way into their confidence. In 1892 he was 
joined by the Reverend Graham Lee, also a Presbyterian, 
and by M. J. Hall, M.D., of the Methodist mission. 

One of the notable Korean Christians of this early period 
was a man named Kim Chang Sik. Brought by a Korean 
friend to the home of a missionary in Seoul, his curiosity 
was excited by some copies of the New Testament in Chi- 
nese. He bought one, read it, and believed. He quickly 
became a useful worker, and in 1894 was sent to his home in 
Pyengyang to aid Doctor Hall. Py this time opposition 
had become violent. Persecution broke out, and Kim was 
one of the first to be arrested. He and other Christians 
were cruelly beaten, placed in stocks, and warned that if 
they did not give up "the foreigner's rehgion" they would 
be punished still more severely, but that if they would re- 
cant they would be set at liberty. The others in their pain 
and terror 3delded, but Kim remained steadfast. He was 
taken to the death-ceU, and, although believing that he 
would be decapitated if he did not recant, he exclaimed in 
a spirit worthy of the ancient martyrs: "God loves me 
and has forgiven my sins. How can I curse Him !'' For- 
tunately, orders came from Seoul to release the prisoners, 
and the mangled and half-dead Kim went out with the 
others. His fidelity made a profound impression upon the 
city, and people began to say that there must be something 
real in the new religion when a man was willing to suffer 
so much for it. 

The war of 1894 between China and Japan powerfully 
influenced the work. Korea became the battle-ground of 
the contending forces. Soon it became evident that the 
decisive battle of the war would be fought in the vicinity 
of Pyengyang. The wildest excitement prevailed. In the 
crash much Korean property was destroyed, fields were 
ravaged, and msmy of the unhappy people, caught between 



508 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

the upper and nether millstones, suffered from wounds as 
well as fear. The habitually unsanitary condition of Pyeng- 
yang was made worse by the superstitious belief of the 
people that the city rested on a boat, and that to dig wells 
would make holes in its bottom so that it would sink. The 
only available water-supply therefore was the river, and 
as that was polluted by the numerous bodies of men and 
animals, typhus-fever and dysentery developed and swept 
among the poor Koreans with frightful virulence. 

Although the situation was known to be full of danger, 
the missionaries heroically remained at their posts. They 
went about among the panic-stricken people at the risk of 
their lives, binding up the wounds of the injured, caring for 
the sick, burying the dead, and doing everything in their 
power to allay terror and to urge trust in God. To the in- 
expressible regret of all who knew him, the beloved Doctor 
Hall, of the Methodist mission, was among those who were 
fatally stricken by typhus-fever. The Koreans then real- 
ized for the first time that the American missionaries were 
the best friends they had. Public sentiment began to change. 

An epidemic of cholera in Seoul brought out like devo- 
tion on the part of the missionaries in the capital. They 
toiled indefatigably for the sick and dying, performing 
offices from which the bravest Koreans shi-ank, exposing 
themselves without stint, and saving hundreds of lives. 
''All these recoveries made no little stir in the city. Proc- 
lamations were posted on the walls telling people there was 
no need for them to die when they might go to the Chris- 
tian hospital and live. People who watched missionaries 
working over the sick night after night said to each other: 
'How these foreigners love us ! Would we do as much for 
one of our own kin as they do for strangers?' Some men 
who saw Mr. Underwood hurrying along the road in the 
gray twilight of a summer morning, remarked : ' There goes 
the Jesus man ; he works all night and all day with the sick 
without resting.' 'Why does he do it?' said another. 
'Because he loves us,' was the reply." ^ 

* Mrs. H. G. Underwood, Fifteen Years Among the Top-Knots, p. 144. 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN KOREA 509 

From that time the work made rapid progress. The story 
forms one of the most stirring chapters in the history of 
modern missions. The people who had been Hving in dark- 
ness and superstition, who had seen ghosts and demons in 
every rock and tree, in the murmur of the waves, and in the 
roar of the thunder, heard the missionaries teach in their 
villages that the Supreme Power was not an evil spirit 
trying to injure them but a loving Father whose heart 
went out to them as His wandering children; and who, if 
they turned to Him in repentance and faith, would bestow 
upon them the joy and dignity of a new life. Eagerly the 
people Hstened, this time with clearer understanding. 

The good news began to spread in all directions, and the 
first decade of the twentieth century saw an amazing de- 
velopment. The average net increase of the Northern 
Presbyterian Mission for thirteen years was 38 per cent. 
The Reverend D. A. Bunker, of the Methodist Church, 
wrote: ^'Work along all lines goes forward so fast that we 
are all on the run to keep pace with it. The church of which 
I have charge in the city is carrying on home-mission work 
in over 140 villages. At every chapel there are candidates 
for baptism or probationship awaiting us. In the past 
ten days 611 new names have been added to the list of be- 
lievers.'' In Pyengyang, the Reverend W. L. Swallen re- 
ported that 2,000 persons confessed Christ in the revival 
of 1907. The churches were filled to overflowing, and in 
order to relieve the congestion the men and women were 
compelled to meet at separate hours. The meetings were 
characterized by deep feeling and fervent prayer, sometimes 
lasting till midnight. 

The awakening manifested itself in varying degrees in 
many parts of the coimtry. Seoul as the capital and me- 
tropolis is a peculiarly difficult city to influence, but the 
preacher at the Yun Mot Kol Church often faced 1,500 
persons. The ordinary experience of all the city churches 
was a crowded house, and a union meeting would bring out 
from 3,000 to 5,000 people. Taiku Station, which had 
been opened in 1897 by the Reverend and Mrs. James E. 



510 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Adams, repoi-ted that by the end of the first five years, 177 
adults had been baptized; by the end of a decade, 6,145; 
and that the twentieth anniversary witnessed 17,448 Chris- 
tians in the city and outlying villages. Syenchyun, one 
hundred miles north of Pyengyang, although only an ordi- 
nary town in size, sprung into prominence for its remarka- 
ble missionary work. The station was not organized until 
1901, but within sixteen years it reported 187 outstations, 
11,681 commmiicants, 5,416 catechumens, and 28,350 ad- 
herents. At Kangkai, an isolated northern city of 10,000 
inhabitants, there was no resident missionary until 1908, 
and only an itinerating visitor at rare intervals. When he 
made his annual visit, the people came long distances to 
meet him, crowded the rooms in which he spoke, and often 
stood outside in the snow for hours to hear the one message 
of the year. From this scanty seed-sowing, a vigorous con- 
gregation grew up, and over 1,200 men and women threw 
away their fetiches, stopped sacrificing to evil spirits, kept 
Sunday as a day of rest and Christian worship, and, in spite 
of persecution by angry neighbors, followed the light that 
they had dimly seen. 

Sorai became a transfigured community. Think of a 
village of fifty-eight houses, in fifty of which all persons over 
fifteen years of age are Christians; a community in which 
there is no Hquor, no brawling, no vice of any kind; where 
Sunday is scrupulously observed, and the entire population 
attends church, Sunday-school, and prayer-meeting ! The 
church is the principal building in the place, almost impos- 
ing in comparison with the humble homes of the people. 
Two brothers were instrumental in creating this model 
Christian village. The elder was converted through the 
Reverend John Ross during a visit in Manchuria. Soon 
after his return he met Doctor Underwood, who gladly gave 
him the instruction he was so eager to obtain. Filled with 
joy and zeal, like Andrew of old, "he first findeth his own 
brother and said unto him: ^We have found the Messiah/ 
and he brought him to Jesus." Removing to Sorai, these 
brothers preached the gospel with such power and exem- 



m 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN KOREA 511 

plified it with such beaut}^ of character that the whole 
village was transformed. Long shall we cherish the memor}^ 
of our visit. We arrived late Saturday afternoon after a 
hard journey. As we gazed upon the Christian homes 
clustering at the foot of the hill, the wide expanse of meadow 
beyond, and farther away, but in plain view, the quiet sea, 
the clouds which had heavily lowered during the day sud- 
denly broke, the setting sun burst forth in radiant beauty, 
and at evening-time there was light. A trumpet sounded 
from the church steps. Softly and yet clearly it echoed 
among the trees and through the village, and soon answering 
groups of white-robed figures were wending their way up 
the hillside to the house of God, where we communed long 
with them as the shadows fell and the stars came out. 

Vividly interesting instances might be cited from the 
history of several other stations. Many parts of the coim- 
try were powerfully moved. The Reverend William A. 
Noble, of the Methodist Church, wrote: "The total in- 
crease in followers during the year has not been paralleled 
during the history of our work in northern Korea. The 
district now records a total following of more than all our 
our work in Korea three years ago. . . . The immediate 
effect of the revival has been to revolutionize the character 
of the church. It has given the people at large a different 
idea of what it means to become a Christian. Now they 
are discriminating in judgment. A man will take a stand 
in relation to moral questions with intelligence and commit 
himself only when ready to make a change in his life." In 
1911 the Methodist Board of Missions reported that, 
within the short period of twenty-five years, the church in 
Korea had grown to over 60,000 members and probation- 
ers. Stations had been opened at six centres. An Annual 
Conference had been organized with 34 ministerial mem- 
bers and 21 probationers, native and foreign, 7 districts, 
over 400 organized congregations, and more than a thou- 
sand preaching-places. The quarter^centennial year was 
signalized by the first appointment to the district superin- 
tendency of a Korean minister, and the sending of a Korean 



r>12 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

missionary, supported by the Korean churches, to work 
in China. In educational work, there were 172 schools 
with 6,083 pupils, besides 183 theological students. The 
Woman's Foreign Missionary Society had schools for the 
training of Bible-women and nurses, and for the education 
of the blind and of deaf-mutes. During the preceding year 
30,000 patients were cared for by the Methodist physicians, 
and since the opening of the mission over 500,000 patients 
had been treated in the hospitals. 

All the missions reported large gains. The Southern 
Methodist mission made a net increase of 62 per cent in a 
single year. "The people are turning to Christ as I have 
never seen in any field," wrote Bishop Candler. The Young 
Men's Christian Association shared in the general advance. 
Within two years the membership of the City Association 
had risen to 600, and Secretary Gillett could write: "In- 
stead of the interest and enthusiasm of the membership 
subsiding, as some of our friends feared, it is growing con- 
stantly. We are turning men away now for lack of room. 
Our rooms are so janmied at the lectures we hold every 
Tuesday and Thursday evening that men are unable to get 
within earshot of the speaker. I have frequently seen as 
many as a hundred gathered outside at the windows." The 
association now has a fine plant in an excellent location, the 
building erected with a generous gift by Mr. John Wana- 
maker of Philadelphia, but the valuable site and the rimning 
expenses paid for by the Koreans. The visitor finds a 
day-school, a gynmasiima, industrial classes and shops for 
practical training, and numerous meetings of various kinds. 

The missionaries found results multiplying with such 
rapidity that they were overworked in the effort to organize 
and superintend them. Every missionary assigned to 
evangelistic work is virtually a bishop of an extensive di- 
ocese, and is obliged to toil and travel almost incessantly 
in order to keep any kind of oversight of his mmierous 
and scattered outstations. A typical missionary, whose re- 
port is before me, supervises forty-seven churches and 
thirty other outstations. He visits each of these churches 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN KOREA 513 

and outstations twice a year, and some of them oftener. 
This obliges him to ride 1,500 miles on horseback, besides 
the time he spends in trains and on foot. Thirty miles a 
day is a common experience, with one or more sermons 
preached in the evening. This itineration keeps him from 
home two hundred days of the year. Few old-time Metho- 
dist circuit-riders could offer a better record. These itiner- 
ating tours are busy times for the missionary. He must 
labor early and late, for he is expected to assign native 
workers to their circuits, give the leaders instruction re- 
garding their work, lay out a course of Bible study for those 
who are prepared to take it, invite selected men and women 
to attend the training-classes at the nearest central station, 
examine candidates for admission to the church, settle dis- 
putes often prolonged and loquacious, administer discipline, 
baptize, marry, and perhaps bury. 

When the weather is pleasant in the spring and fall, 
travelling in the interior is a delightful experience, as I can 
testify; but in the storms of winter, and in the rainy season 
of summer, itineration is quite another matter. The hard- 
ships of travel prior to the completion of the railway, and 
to-day in the large parts of the country that are not reached 
by rail, are illustrated by the journey of two missionaries, 
one of them accompanied by his wife and child, on their 
way from an interior station to Pyengyang: "It rained 
steadily for a week before starting. The rivers were up to 
our chins, and we not only had to ford them ourselves but 
induce frightened natives to do so. The horse that car- 
ried the food-boxes and cotsieU behind, and we were obUged 
to eat anything we could get, and to sleep on the floor, Ko- 
rean fashion, in wet clothes and devoured by insects. The 
pouring rain and flooded streams made fast travelling, or any 
travelling at all, nearly impossible. In one place, we waded 
through water and mud to our waists for five li (a mile and 
two-thirds). This was especially hard on the chair cooHes, 
who had to keep the poles on their shoulders the whole dis- 
tance, and could not put down the chair t-o rest. In spite 
of all obstacles we made the hundred miles in five days.'' 



514 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

It is hazardous to give exact statistics of the mission work, 
as the figures that are correct as one writes are sure to be 
below the mark by the time this book is read. The annual 
volume of The Christian Movement in Japan includes re- 
ports for Korea, and may be consulted for the latest returns. 
Suffice it here that the last report gave 219,220 Protestant 
Christians, including definitely known adherents, in little 
Korea. Adding the Roman and Greek CathoHc reports 
swells the total to 318,708, or about three times as many 
as there were in all the world at the end of the first century 
of the Christian era. Seldom has it been given to the first 
generation of missionaries in any land to witness such rich 
fruitage while yet in their prime. Eveiy year, it seemed 
that the movement must have reached its cHmax, and that 
there would certainly be a reaction; but every year saw it 
broadening and deepening until it looked as if Korea would 
be the first of the non-Christian nations to become evan- 
gelized. 

Almost every night we had a picture in chiaroscuro of 
the spiritual condition of Asia. A humble church, whose 
flickering oil-lamps made the room bright in contrast with 
the surrounding darkness, was filled with believers who were 
rejoicing within the pale of "His marvellous light." Be- 
yond them crowding the doors were many others, not yet 
wholly in the fight, but partially illuminated by it, their 
eager faces turned toward the place from which it was shin- 
ing, and where a man was speaking of the Light of the World. 
Behind these were still others, whom I could not count, 
standing in deeper shadows. Now and then a flare of the 
lamp shot a ray of light into the ^oom and showed scores 
of spectators, some indifferent, some curious, sorae gravely 
wondering; and then the darkness silently enfolded them 
again so that only indistinct masses of heavier blackness 
showed where an unnumbered multitude was gathered. 
As I looked upon this scene night after night, I was encour- 
aged by the number of those who had come into the light; 
but my heart was moved for those who were standing in 
the dark. 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN KOREA 515 

Why did Christianity make such rapid growth in Korea, 
far outstripping, in the number of converts, the results of 
missionary effort in Japan and, in proportion to population, 
in China? 

Many Christian workers in Korea and some in other 
fields attribute this success to superiority of poHcies and 
methods. The opinion has even been expressed that if a 
hke course had been adopted in China, that countr}^ would 
now be largely evangelized. It may be well, therefore, to 
note the main outlines of the Korea missionary programme 
as given by one of the influential factors in shaping it, the 
Reverend James E. Adams, D.D., of Taiku: "(1) The 
Chiu"ch's first and chief task is to preach the gospel to 
every soul it can reach. (2) As far as possible, all who ac- 
cept the gospel should be trained in knowledge, in faith, 
in self-control, in Christian activity, and from among these 
should be chosen the most Christ-like and capable to whom 
should be given an education that wiU fit them to become 
leaders in their church and nation. (3) During such train- 
ing it is essential to self-respecting character and inde- 
pendence on the part of the Church, as on the part of indi- 
viduals, that it should finance its own way just as far as 
possible, with help only in the difficult places; for in any 
land a Gospel not worth paying for is not worth having, and 
the simple facts are that the Gospel costs less than heathen- 
ism even in lands where it costs most, and subsidizing the 
Church is fatal to Christian character. In accordance 
with this principle, all ordinary church buildings and equip- 
ment should be within the financial means of the people. 
(4) All buildings, equipment, and machinery as far as pos- 
sible should be in harmony with national ideals of archi- 
tecture and arrangement. (5) Self-government is the 
legitimate right of any Church that even approximately 
pays its own way, and should be given according as the 
young Church is able to assume its responsibilities, and, in 
practically every case, before it is demanded. (6) The in- 
dividual missionary and the Mission, as far as able, ought 
to live ahead of the Church; that is, ought to reach out 



510 THE MASTERY OF THE EAR EAST 

and pre-empt for the future those fields and every field of 
Christian activity and of opportunity which the young 
Church is unable, not unwilling, to lay hold of for itself, 
or which it has not as yet the \dsion to see. (7) The Mis- 
sion as a Mission has no call to give secular education to 
non-Christians, but it should, to the extent of its ability, 
give a broad education to the greatest possible number of 
its sons and daughters. (8) The Mission exists only for 
the Church; it should not even consider permanency, and 
should make all its work tend to its own withdrawal as 
soon as the ends which it seeks are accomphshed." 

These are excellent principles, but it is clear that they 
are not peculiar to Korea. With the possible exception of 
number seven, they are among the axioms of sound mission- 
ary policy everyw^here; and the only change that could be 
suggested in number seven would be to make the last clause 
read: "give a broad Christian education to its sons and 
daughters, and to such others as it can bring imder direct 
religious influence for the forming of Christian character.'' 
These principles account very satisfactorily for results any- 
where, but they do not explain why results in Korea have 
been more quickly achieved than in some other mission 
fields where substantially the same principles have gov- 
erned the work. Evidently we must look for something 
in Korea that is more distinctive. Among a nimiber of 
such factors that might be enumerated, the following may 
be mentioned : 

First: Koreans are temperamentally more docile and emo- 
tional than Chinese and Japanese, so that it is easier to 
make an impression upon them. 

Second: For centuries Korea was a vassal of its power- 
ful neighbors and was subject to foreign domination. 
Politically small and weak in comparison with the strong 
adjoining nations, the Koreans had become accustomed to 
being led from the outside. When, therefore, the mis- 
sionary gained entrance, he foimd less national indepen- 
dence and self-sufficiency to be overcome than in China and 
Japan, which from time immemorial had regarded foreign- 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN KOREA 517 

ers as inferiors and suppliants. To the Korean^ on the 
contrary, the missionary appeared as a superior being. 

Third: While ancestral and demon worship were for- 
midable obstacles, there was no powerful state religion as 
in most other Asiatic coimtries, so that there was no in- 
fluential and strongly intrenched priestly class to oppose 
the missionaries. Buddhist monks were regarded with 
contempt, and their loyalty was so distiiisted that they 
were not permitted to enter the capital. The real religion 
of Korea was Animism, and animistic peoples are usually 
the readiest to respond to the gospel message. Their lives 
are spent in constant fear of demons. Christianity comes 
to them as a blessed deliverance. Uganda, the Kameruns, 
and the South Sea Islands are illustrations of this. The 
marvellous success of the Baptists in Burma has been chiefly 
among those elements of the population in which animistic 
ideas were strongest. In Korea, also, the notable success 
of missionary work has been influenced in no small degree 
by the fact that the real religion of the people is Animism. 
It would be difficult to exaggerate the terror in which the 
people lived. When the missionary went among them 
with his message of emancipation from fear, the tidings 
seemed almost too good to be true. 

Fourth: Poverty, oppression and distress, resulting from 
excessive taxation and the corrupt administration of jus- 
tice, had begotten in many minds a longing for relief, and 
a hope that the missionary could secure it for them. A 
Methodist missionary told me that most of those who came 
to the missionary for the first time were influenced by this 
motive. Beyond any other people that I saw in Asia, the 
Koreans impressed me as pathetically stretching out their 
hands for help and guidance out of bitter bondage. In 
accepting Christianity, they had less to lose in a worldly 
way than the Chinese and Japanese. In countries where 
another religion is an established state institution of which 
the Emperor is the head, or as in India where it is forti- 
fied by walls of caste, or as in Turkey and Persia where 
Islam is an implacable foe, the resisting power of the na- 



518 THE IVIASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

tional system is enormous. A confession of Christ often 
cuts a man off from the associations that he most values. 
He is usually disowned by his family, ostracized by society, 
and mined in business. The Korean did not always find 
the transition to Christianity easy, but, except at the be- 
ginning of missionary effort, he encountered nothing like 
the obstacles that the convert had to surmount in some 
other lands. 

Fifth : It is comparatively easy to induce converts to 
become personal workers for Christ among their own peo- 
ple in a country like Korea. The typical Korean had fewer 
interests to occupy his attention. He commanded a larger 
proportion of his own time, and he was more amenable to 
missionary direction than converts in such countries as 
China, Japan, and India, where society is more highly de- 
veloped, where relations are more complicated, where social 
and business status is more rigidly fixed, where the struggle 
for Hvehhood makes severer demands upon time and 
strength, and where that pride and reserve which all civil- 
ized men feel, in some measure at least, make them more 
conservative in proclaiming a new faith, with perhaps the 
consequent loss of social and business advantages. 

Sixth: The experience of the helpless people during the 
China-Japan War of 1894 disarmed suspicion and turned 
the tide of popular sentiment. As they saw the hostile 
armies fighting in their cities, devastating their fields and 
destroying their homes, they turned in a frenzy of fear and 
dismay to the friendly missionary, beseeching him to save 
them; and their hearts were won by the sympathy and 
devotion of the missionary's response. 

Seventh: The favor of the court was a factor that should 
not be left out of account. The Emperor openly befriended 
the missionaries. I have referred in a former chapter to 
the facts that at the beginning of missionary work Doctor 
Allen saved the life of the King's nephew, that the grateful 
monarch gave him a hospital, and that after the murder of 
the Queen, when the terrified ruler expected his own assas- 
sination, he found counsel and courage in the missionaries. 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN KOREA 519 

The Emperor personally expressed to me his remembrance 
of their fidelity in his hour of peril. His favor meant no 
spiritual help, but the Imperial smile counted for much in 
an Oriental country, and few Koreans were disposed to 
antagonize those whom the Emperor favored. 

One should not fall into the error of Gibbon, who, in his 
History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ignored 
a primary cause of the rapid growth of the Christian Church 
in the first centuries of the Christian era, and emphasized 
only the secondary causes, which he defined as the inflexi- 
ble zeal of the Christians; the doctrine of a future Hfe; the 
miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive Church; the 
pure and austere morals of the Christians; the union and 
discipline of the Christian republic. These were, indeed, 
powerful contributory influences; but of themselves they 
would hardly have carried Christianity so far and sustained 
it so long. In Korea, as in the Roman Empire, the causes 
that have been mentioned need to be supplemented by the 
fact that no one of them, nor all of them combined, fully 
account for such triumphs of the gospel as Korea has wit- 
nessed. They undoubtedly prepared the way for the mis- 
sionaries; but the best soil in the world will produce noth- 
ing of value unless the right seed is sowed and properly 
cultivated. We must, therefore, include in our survey the 
inherent character of the gospel, its satisfaction of the hunger 
of the soul, and its mighty expansive power under the divine 
influence. But I am discussing now, not what regenerates 
himian hearts in all lands, but the special circumstances 
which made man^s work less difficult in Korea than in some 
other fields where the same kind of seed, planted with equal 
faithfulness, was longer in germinating, and where like 
methods and care in cultivation resulted in less bountiful 
harvests. The conditions that have been described created 
a state of receptivity in the Korean mind, a remarkable pre- 
paration of the soil for the gospel seed. Korea was like a 
Western prairie, ready for the plough of the husbandman 
and able to jdeld a harvest the first season ; while the vaster, 
haughtier, more stubborn, phlegmatic, and self-satisfied 



520 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

population of China was like the rocky and densely wooded 
region of the New England coast, where weary years of toil 
had to be spent in hewing down the forest, uprooting gigan- 
tic stumpS; and gathering out stones. Comparisons are, 
therefore, unfair. Conditions independent of the mission- 
ary made the task of evangelization less difficult in one field 
than in the other. It was to be expected that a given 
amount of effort would produce an earlier harvest in Korea 
than in fields where such conditions did not exist. 

And yet it would be wrong to give the impression that 
there were no obstacles to be encountered in Korea. It is 
not easy to induce any non-Christian people to change its 
ancestral faith. Superstitious fears, the inertia of indolence, 
the apathy of despair, the jealousy of the literary class, the 
demoralizing example of officials — all these heavily re- 
inforce the ever-present influences of the world, the flesh, 
and the devil. The human heart does not readily relin- 
quish its idols in Korea or anywhere else. The special 
credit of the missionaries is that they were wise and faith- 
ful in taking advantage of the peculiar conditions of the 
land. Coming in "the fulness of the time," they discerned 
the providential significance of the hour. It was not neces- 
sary to begin with schools, as in Moslem lands. Korea was 
ready for the direct preaching of the gospel, and to that 
preaching the missionaries gave themselves with unceasing 
zeal. 

Some methods of mission work that have been adopted 
in other fields have been developed with such conspicuous 
success in Korea that they merit special mention. One of 
these ig the training-class for Christian workers. The classes 
usually last from ten to fourteen days. The larger ones are 
held at the central stations, and smaller ones led by Korean 
Christians are conducted at some of the outstations. Be- 
ginning with one class of seven men in 1891, the classes have 
increased in numbers until now a single mission holds over 
800 classes every year, with an aggregate attendance ex- 
ceeding 50,000 persons. Pyengyang has become famous for 
its large classes, the number of persons attending often ex- 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN KOREA 521 

ceeding 1,000. About 500 Korean workers co-operated 
with the missionaries in holding classes in a recent year at 
250 different places in northern Korea, the attendance being 
over 12,000. It is not uncommon for Koreans to walk 
more than a himdred miles to attend these classes, bringing 
their own food with them, and some have journeyed as far 
as three hundred miles. Then these eager Christians go 
back to do personal evangehstic work in their villages. 
There is something inspiring in the contemplation of such 
devotion, and it accounts in no small measure for the splen- 
did success of the missionary movement in Korea. 

Self-support, too, has been pressed with striking results. 
From the beginning, Korean Christians have not been al- 
lowed to expect paid employment from the missionaries, 
nor have they received it, save in comparatively few and 
exceptional cases. Foreign money has been used to some 
extent in building churches in the large central stations 
where the missionaries reside, but in the villages the be- 
lievers meet in one another's houses until they are strong 
enough to build a church for themselves. The edifice is 
usually a very humble one, but it is as good as the houses 
in which the members live, and sometimes, as in Sorai, it 
is the most notable building in the community. The peo- 
ple prize it because it has cost them something, and because 
it belongs to them. The most competent man among them 
is selected, in consultation with the missionary, as their 
leader; and he is responsible, under the missionaiy, for the 
conduct of the work, without compensation, like a Sunday- 
school superintendent in America. The missionary visits 
these outstations once or twice a year to give such counsel 
and supervision as may be needed; but at all other times 
the Christians manage their own affairs. After a while, 
when the whole time of the leader is required, he receives 
a small salary, about what the average member of the 
group hves upon; but the people pay it. Their poverty is 
startling to an American; but they support him as best 
they can. A limited number of qualified Christians are 
employed by the missionaries for evangelistic work among 



522 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

non-Christians; although some of these, also, are main- 
tained by the larger groups of Christians. The mission- 
aries do not go to unreasonable extremes in their refusal to 
employ native workers, and they use them wherever the 
interests of the work appear to justify them. But the pres- 
sure is strong for self-support and self -propagation. No 
Christian is permitted to feel that he has any financial claim 
on the missionary, or that, if he is employed, the employ- 
ment is anything more than temporaiy. The Koreans now 
support a large majority of their workers, churches, and 
primary schools. They rightly regard them as their own, 
and they are devotedly loyal to them. 

The missionaries have been particularly wise in pressing 
the principle of the self -propagation of the church. Con- 
verts are urged to carry the Christian message to their 
neighbors and friends at once. Koreans are fluent talkers, 
and they preach as readily as they give. Many Koreans 
have a natural gift for public speaking, and they find inter- 
esting scope for it in proclaiming the gospel. Indeed, the 
chief work of direct evangelization is now ardently done by 
the Koreans themselves. Willingness to lead others to 
Christ is deemed a test of fitness for church membership. 
Thus the Korean churches are to a remarkable degree work- 
ing evangelistic bodies. ^^With great power'' give ^Hhey 
witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great 
grace" is '^upon them all.'' If any one feature of the Ko- 
rean method needs to be heralded as an example to Chris- 
tians both at home and abroad it is this — ^the duty and 
privilege of the individual disciple to witness for Christ 
without depending upon his minister to do it for him, and 
without expectation of financial reward, but living and 
teaching the gospel in the sphere of life in which he was 
before. 

I asked the leaders of the Korean Christians in several 
conferences: '^What is it in Christianity that particularly 
appeals to the Korean mind?" The answers naturally 
varied, but the ones most frequently recurring were ^^sal- 
vation," "joy." The poor Koreans were living in wretch- 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN KOREA 523 

edness and despair, oppressed, poverty-ytrickeo, literally 
^'having no hope and without God in the vvorld/' knowing 
nothing of anything better, but knowing well their own 
bitterness and sorrow. Suddenly, they heard the clear, 
sweet invitation of the gospel, telling them of pardon, de- 
liverance, and peace. Eagerly and trustfully as children 
they came and found rest for their souls. Nowhere else in 
the world is there a more significant illustration of the gos- 
pel's response to human need and the value of personal work. 
Making all due allowance for other causes and the excep- 
tional conditions that imdoubtedly existed, the fact remains 
that the Divine Power has moved in a remarkable way 
upon the Land of the Morning Calm. One does not wonder 
that Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop said that the mission work 
there was the most impressive she saw in any part of the 
world. 



CHAPTER XXXII 
KOREAN CHRISTIANS 

The Korean Christians deeply interest the student of 
religious life and activity. The criticism has been made 
that their profession is of doubtful stability because it is 
alleged to be simply a mass movement of peasants, emo- 
tional in character, and with no sufficient basis in knowledge. 
Will their faith be as virile and permanent aS' that of the 
more tenacious Chinese and the more philosophical East 
Indian ? The Koreans are turning to God from the depths 
of utter worldly despair, accepting the gospel as their only 
hope and help in this world. Will they give it the same 
supremacy in their lives when their material conditions 
improve and life has in it more of the opportunities and 
ambitions which characterize other peoples? It is true 
that there is a large emotional element in Korean Christi- 
anity; but why should we distrust the work on that ac- 
count? The heart is quite as likely to be right as the 
head. Repentance, faith, and devotion which enhst the 
profoimdest emotions of the soul are surely not to be slighted. 
Love is one of the strongest of human passions; and when 
it is centred in Christ, it flowers into rare beauty. 

It must be admitted, however, that the factor of tempera- 
ment exposes the Korean churches to special peril. Emo- 
tions that are quickly aroused sometimes subside with equal 
cfuickness. A comparison of the number of accessions with 
the net gain in membership through a series of years shows 
that there have been serious losses in the Korean churches. 
Of course there are leakages in every organization of human 
beings. Not all men and women who join any society in 
any land remain in it all their lives. But the percentage of 
those who lapse in Korea is higher than in some other lands. 
This does not necessarily argue instability of the church, 

524 



KOREAN CHRISTIANS 525 

for one should remember that there is less family, social, and 
financial loss in confessing Christ in Korea than in China, 
India, and Mohammedan lands. Where little opposition 
or sacrifice is involved, it is easier to identify oneself with 
Christianity than in a country where one knows that if he 
announces that he has become a Christian he will probably 
be disowned by his family, ostracized by the community, 
and bitterly persecuted by powerful priests. I am aware 
that there have been times when these obstacles have been 
encountered in Korea, and that they are occasionally en- 
countered now. I have described in another chapter the 
fear of some of the Koreans that a confession of Christianity 
will expose them to closer espionage by the Japanese police. 
Whether this fear is ill or well grounded, it undoubtedly 
has existed at various times. Nevertheless, the generaliza- 
tion holds that the barriers to church membership are less 
formidable in Korea than in many other mission fields. 
This consideration, taken in connection with the Korean 
temperament, helps one to understand why some Koreans 
profess conversion only to drop out of sight a few years 
later. 

The missionaries do everything in their power to guard 
against this evil. It is true that the Koreans are coming 
to the church in large numbers; but it is not true that they 
are received in a mass. Missionaries deal with each in- 
dividual separately, carefully examining him and testing 
him as a catechumen for an average period of a year. He 
is not enrolled as a commimicant until he shows reasonable 
familiarity with the Bible, maintains family prayers, con- 
tributes in proportion to his means, and lives a fairly con- 
sistent Christian life. If membership in American churches 
were confined to Christians of that type, would the enrol- 
ment be as large as it is now? It is misleading to assert 
that Korean converts are not grounded in the faith and that 
they are not receiving an education. I have referred else- 
where to the congregational Bible schools every Sunday, 
and to the Bible training-classes which are held at all the 
principal stations. These special means of instruction are 



526 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

supplemented by preaching services and by daily study in 
the homes. If there are any other Christians in the world 
who are more familiar with the Bible than the Korean Chris- 
tians, I have not had the privilege either of meeting them 
or of hearing about them. 

Another criticism frequently urged is that the Christian 
movement in Korea is largely political and influenced by 
expectation of financial gain. Political conditions undoubt- 
edly made the progress of the gospel more easy than in some 
other lands. The Christian movement, however, attained 
large proportions before the Japanese occupation and while 
the Koreans were under their own government. I have 
already referred to the efforts of the revolutionary party, 
some years ago, to utilize the churches and the Young Men's 
Christian Association. But the missionaries and the Ko- 
rean Christian leaders promptly and decisively put a stop 
to this. The Koreans now clearly understand that the 
Christian Church and the Y. M. C. A. have no relation 
whatever to politics, and that those who wish to foment 
revolutionary ideas must do so outside of the churches. 

The flimsiness of the charge that Korean Christians are 
influenced by the expectation of financial gain is shown by 
the well-known facts that, though they are among the most 
poverty-stricken people in the world, they support a large 
majority of their churches, chapels, and the primary schools, 
which, as a rule, are associated with the congregations; 
that an insignificant fraction of them are employed by the 
missionaries; and that self-support has been pressed to as 
great an exigent as in any mission field in the world. The 
wage of a Korean laborer is about twenty cents a day, as 
compared with $2 to 13 in the United States. Imagine, 
then, the significance of gifts and fees in a single year aggre- 
gating yen 356,995. In one mission the contributions in- 
creased from yen 6,583 in 1903 to yen 77,335 in 1908, and 
yen 193,304 in 1918. The original building of the First 
Presbyterian Church of Pyengyang cost 4,000 yen. The 
Mission Board agreed to provide half of this sum if the 
people would furnish the other half. But on a memorable 



KOREAN CHRISTIANS 527 

February Sunday, the Chiistians surprised and delighted 
the missionaries by subscribing 3,000 yen, and a few years 
later they actually raised and refunded to the Mission Board 
the remaining 1,000. 

A visitor interested in Sunday-school work was troubled 
because he found what seemed to be a small proportion of 
children in the Sunday-schools. The fact was that prac- 
tically the whole congregation of each group of believers 
was in Sunday-school stud}dng the Bible. All the boys and 
girls were there; but, scattered through the great assem- 
blages with their parents, they were not so readily noticed 
by an American traveller to whom a Sunday-school meant a 
gathering of children with only a handful of adults. Korea 
has the best kind of Sunday-schools for they are congrega- 
tional Bible schools. Official reports show that the Sunday- 
school membership is about three and a half times the 
communicant membership of the church, and is 90 per 
cent of the total number of communicants and adherents 
combined. 

Simday is the great day of the week to these Korean 
Christians. Their best clothes have been carefully laim- 
dered for the occasion, and they flock to the church, their 
clean white figures lending a pictm'esquely attractive touch 
to the squalid aspect of a Korean village. The edifice is 
soon crowded. All Korean congregations sit on the floor, 
the men with their hats on and the sexes divided by a par- 
tition; the preacher standing so that he can see both sexes. 
When the attendance is so large as to require more room, 
the minister asks the congregation to rise, to move forward, 
and to sit down again. Few churches in Europe and Amer- 
ica have an average attendance at pubhc worship as large 
as their reported membership. But a typical mission in 
Korea reports the average attendance at church services as 
two and nine-tenths times its communicant membership. . 

As for prayer, the family altar is the rule rather than the 
exception, and few Christians would think of eating a meal 
without asking the blessing of God. The report of the 
Korean clerk of a Presbytery for a recent year included the 



528 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

following: ''Individual Christians have grown in their per- 
sonal prayer life. The Morning Watch has grown the past 
few years until many churches have the daybreak prayer- 
meetings in the church buildings. Some have never missed 
the Morning Watch a single day in eight years^ and this 
early tryst with the Lord has brought a hundredfold bless- 
ing to individuals and to churches. The mid-week prayer 
meetings, of course [mark the words: ''of course"], are at- 
tended by all Christians. There have been special prayer- 
meetings. Also the universal Week of Prayer was well 
observed. Besides these, there have been prayer-meetings 
on the roadside, in the inns, in prisons, and on the moun- 
tains where God has given the children of the North great 
comfort and inspiration." 

The mid-week prayer-meetings are notable characteristics 
of Korean religious life. The meeting in Pyengyang is 
probably the largest in the world, the attendance rarely 
falling below a thousand, and often rising to 1,400. I 
attended a prayer-meeting in the Yun Mot Kol Church 
in Seoul. It was a dark, rainy night. A Korean was to 
lead, and the people did not know that a traveller from the 
West would be present; but I found about 1,000 Christians 
assembled. It would be extraordinary if 1,200 American 
church members came out on prayer-meeting night in any 
city in the United States, but 1,200 people filled the Syen- 
chyun Church the evening we spent there. It is worth 
going far to hear Korean Christians pray. They bow with 
their faces to the floor and pour out praise, confession, and 
supplication as those who know what it is to have daily 
audience with God. This spirit of prayer and Bible study 
pervades their daily fives. 

The Reverend F. S. Miller writes from Chungju: "We 
are in a mountain village in a rocky gully at the foot of 
YeUow Crane Mountain. These people appreciate the light 
and joy that the gospel brings into their dark homes. They 
have time to think and pray and study during the winter. 
The little bands of Christians scattered through the moun- 
tains have a common bond of union with each other and 



KOREAN CHRISTIANS 529 

with the great church out in the world, a bond that gives 
them a new vision, a new life. We are levelling off the 
south end of our hill for a hospital. As I walked over the 
site the other day, I noticed a niche in the bank, and that 
it contained four Testaments and hymn-books. Where in 
America do you find a band of workers taking Testaments 
and hymn-books to work with them? As I stood thinking 
these things over, the men came around the bank, laid 
down their shovels and picks and asked me to lead their 
'rest-time prayer-meeting.' Perhaps only haK of them 
were Christians, but all sat in respectful silence and bowed 
their heads in prayer." 

There is something deeply moving about the zeal of these 
Korean Christians. A deacon, who had attended the Syen- 
chyun men's Bible study conference, on his way back came 
toward evening to a mountain pass. As it was the evening 
for the regular mid-week service, he wanted to cross and 
worship in a little gathering on the other side. He started 
over, but night came on, he lost his way, and fell into a 
snow bank, where he perished. When his body was found, 
it was in the attitude of prayer. Investigation revealed the 
fact that he had left the inn that morning without breakfast 
as he had used up all his money, so that hunger and weari- 
ness had lessened his power of resistance to the bitter cold. 

The following extracts from letters from three different 
parts of Korea are samples of scores that I might cite from 
my correspondence: '^The men's class which has just closed 
was attended by 500 men. They came from all parts of the 
Province. The spirit was fine. Two himdred and fifty 
men pledged enough days of preaching to equal the work 
of one man for nine years, and a large body of men pledged 
themselves to begin each day with the petition: 'What wilt 
Thou have me do to-day?'" 

Another letter says: ''The Church is waking up to a 
strenuous effort to take the gospel to every house and every 
man and woman this year. At a circuit class which I held 
for a week, 250 were present, all staying till the close of the 
last session. One evening was given to the subject of per- 



530 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

sonal work, and an opportunity for pledging a number of 
days' work during the year resulted in an aggregate of 2,700 
days of preaching pledged. The helpers who had no time 
of their own to give pledged each half a month's salar}\ 
An ox-load of 4,000 copies of St. Mark's Gospel was sent to 
me during the class, and in less than half an hour they 
were all gone. I had not sufficient to supply the de- 
mand." 

Another missionary writes: '^I have just returned from 
a class where there were 1,400 present. Three thousand 
three hundred copies of St. Mark's Gospel w^ere purchased 
by the Christians to give away in their preaching to unbe- 
lievers. After an address on the subject of tithing, several 
hundred decided hereafter to give a tenth. At the close of 
a sermon over 400 stood up and solemnly dedicated them- 
selves wholly to the Lord. A colportem^, while coming into 
the city from ten miles out, counted 400 men who had re- 
ceived a Gospel. Men coming in from chm*ches where they 
were having a week of Bible study say that the churches 
are crowded with new believers. In some instances the 
congregations are doubled, and people are standing outside 
the doors Hstening to the Gospel." 

One more letter may be cited: "The Methodist Confer- 
ence was a most enthusiastic one. The 159 men who were 
present pledged some 3,000 days duiing the next three 
months. At Chairyung the training class pledged during 
the next three months over 5,000 days. We have secured 
from the British and Foreign Bible Society a special copy 
of St. Mark's Gospel that is being printed in large quan- 
tities. These will be sold to Chiistians who v/ill take them, 
and with a word of prayer and advice give them to their 
friends. The Society first ordered 100,000, and then cabled 
to make it 200,000. Finding the orders were nearly 300,000, 
the edition was made 400,000. We expect considerably 
over a million of these Gospels wdll be distributed during the 
year, and a determined effoi-t will be made to see that every 
household in Korea during this year hears the stoiy of Christ 
in an inteUigent manner. The whole country will be dis- 



KOREAN CHRISTIANS 531 

tricted, aiid in some way or other every house will be 
reached." 

At the close of a conference for the training of lay work- 
ers, when the men were asked to consider the claims of 
Christian service, 178 of the finest men in the north dedi- 
cated their lives to the ministry. 

One does not wonder that, when a certain critic asserted 
that "the Korean Christians are on a low level, and that 
perhaps four-fifths of those who are enrolled wall have to 
be sifted out,'' Doctor John R. Mott, who has probably 
seen as much of Christians in various lands as any living 
man, replied: "I cannot agree with him in his estimate of 
the Korean Christians. I regard them to be in advance of 
the first generation of Christians of most of the non-Chris- 
tian countries which I have visited. Moreover, they put 
to shame a multitude of the Christians of the West in more 
than one respect." 

Nor is the thought of the Korean Christians confined to 
their immediate neighborhoods. One of the seven men 
ordained September 17, 1907, Yi Ki Poung, was set aside 
as a missionary to Quelpart, the large island about fifty 
miles off the southern coast, whose population of approx- 
imately a hundred thousand has long had a bad name. 
It is interesting to note that this first Korean missionary 
was a man who stoned the Reverend Samuel A. Moffett 
during the latter's first visit to Pyengyang, in 1889. 

The Korean churches had been conducting Christian 
work for some years among the Chinese in Korea, and when 
a Korean Board of Foreign Missions was organized in 1907 
it at once began to plan for missionary work in China. 
The church leaders were stirred as they learned of its vast 
unevangelized population, and they felt that their prox- 
imity, their knowledge of the Chinese ideographs, the his- 
toric relations of the two countries, and Korea's indebted- 
ness to China for its civilization and literature, combined 
to reinforce the missionary obligation which they held to 
be binding upon them as well as upon Western Christians. 
They realized that the Chinese had long regarded Koreans 



532 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

as a small and inferior people, but their consecration was 
illustrated by a prayer that a missionary happened to 
overhear in a church service: ^^0 Lord, we are a despised 
people, the weakest nation on the earth. But thou art a 
God who choosest the despised things. Wilt thou use this 
nation to show forth Thy glory in Asia ! " In 1912, negotia- 
tions were opened with the Chinese Presbytery in the 
province of Shantung regarding the advisability of sending 
Korean missionaries to China. The Presbytery welcomed 
the offer of co-operation, and the outcome was the com- 
missioning of three Korean missionaries to open a station 
at Lai-yang, a walled city about eighty miles southwest of 
Chef 00. The station had a checkered history for several 
years. The health of the senior member broke down, and 
the two other workers became discontented and went back 
to Korea. It looked for a time as if the effort would prove 
a failure. The Korean General Assembly, however, de- 
cided to go on. Other missionaries were appointed and 
funds raised for their support. Difficulties have been 
numerous, and the work has not been as successful as its 
projectors had hoped; but a fairly prosperous church at 
Lai-yang has been developed, and the Korean churches are 
warmly interested in it and eager to develop it. 

Meantime the attention of the Korean Christians, par- 
ticularly in the northern stations, had been turned to the 
adjacent region in Manchuria, where the number of Korean 
immigrants was rapidly becoming large. Korean evangel- 
ists were sent to work among their brethren there, and to 
take advantage of any opportunities that might arise to 
preach to the Chinese. A visitor writes that he happened 
to be in Syenchyun one Sunday evening when a Korean 
evangelist, who had just returned from Siberia, presented 
his report. He had been very successful in organizing 
groups of believers, but he had been obliged to return at the 
end of six months because the 500 yen that had been given 
him by the church had been exhausted, although he had 
used it prudently; a statement which was confirmed by 
an. American missionary who had audited his accounts. 



KOREAN CHRISTIANS 533 

After the meeting had closed and many of the members 
had gone home, the Korean pastor exclaimed: ^^Oh, must 
we drop this work for lack of money?" and he broke down 
in tears. A voice in the rear of the church called out: 
^^To comfort the heart of the pastor, I'll give five yen to 
start a subscription to continue the Siberian work six 
months.'^ Other pledges of varying amounts quickly fol- 
lowed, until another 500 yen had been secured. Then those 
poor Koreans, not one of whom had an income of 500 yen 
a year, shouted for joy, simg "Praise God from whom all 
blessings flow," and went out into the darkness and rain 
to their humble homes with a great happiness in their 
hearts. The next day, the congregation voted to send an 
ordained minister to Siberia as its own representative, pay- 
ing his salary and providing him a house; and in order 
that no one might imagine that this action would interfere 
with its pledges toward the support of the missionary work 
of the Presbytery on Quelpart and in Vladivostok, the con- 
gregation also voted to increase its contributions to these 
objects by 10 per cent. 

There is something striking about the transformation 
that Christianity effects in these Koreans. George Kennan 
regarded the vain, lazy, bigoted Korean yangban "as ap- 
parently an absolutely impossible person to do anything 
with or make anything out of," but he declared that mis- 
sionary schools. Christian education, and foreign travel have 
transformed some of them into intelligent, trustworthy, and 
patriotic men, and he thought that if they could be recon- 
structed, there was hope for others and for the next genera- 
tion. 

Mr. F. A. Mackenzie, the English war correspondent, 
writes: "Some travellers are accustomed to sneer at mis- 
sionary converts. Usually these are people who have never 
travelled further than treaty ports, and who consider that 
a few days' stay at a semi-Europeanized town like Shanghai 
or Yokohama enables them to speak as authorities on 
heathen lands forever after. Those of us who have pene- 
trated into the interior of the great dark continents know 



;3;J4 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

better. I was with one of the Japanese armies in 1904 in its 
advance into Manchuria. Among my servants were several 
native Korean converts. Early in the spring, it was neces- 
sary for me to communicate with some associates at Chefoo, 
in China. I called one of my 'boys' and told him to set 
out from Antung and reach the other side. He had to 
cross the Yellow Sea by himself, escape the mines around 
Port Arthur, land in China, obtain money for me, and 
return. The 'boy' had never been outside his native 
countiy before. He disappeared, and for weeks nothing 
was heard of him. Then, one day, when our army had 
advanced far up into Manchuria, I was riding along, when 
a bronzed, ragged, weary figure ran up to my horse, with 
one cry on his lips : ' Master, Master ! ' My ' boy ' had come 
back. He took me on one side and showed me a heavy 
package of money in his inner dress. He had been de- 
layed. His own funds were exhausted. He had starved 
and suffered desperately. Yet it had never crossed his 
mind to give up his work or to help himseK to my mone}^ 
That was a missionary boy. I know too much of what the 
missionaries actually do to have anything but a profoimd 
respect for their work." 

The Christians are fearless in their devotion. We have 
seen to what extent the history of early Christianity in 
Korea abounds in accoimts of martyrdoms which the be- 
Hevers could have escaped by recanting their faith. Such 
dangers have now passed; but ever and anon some incident 
shows that the spirit of the modern Korean Christian is as 
devoted as that of his predecessors. The teachers and 
students at Syenchyun, who were arrested by the Japanese 
police at the time of the "Korean Conspiracy Case," were 
not told what they had been arrested for, and supposed it 
was because they were Christians. But on their arrival 
in Seoul, as they were driven in chains and handcuffs through 
the streets to the prison, they lustily sung the hymn, "Glory 
to His Name." 

Not without humor are some of the manifestations of 
fidelity. When the Christians believed that the Japanese 



KOREAN CHRISTIANS 535 

were imprisoning church members on account of their re- 
ligion, a Korean evangelist connected with the Methodist 
Mission, anxiously said to a missionary: '^Moksa, there 
must be something wrong in our Methodist Church. I fear 
we are lacking in faith. There are thirty-seven Presby- 
terians in jail and only one Methodist. I fear the Lord 
does not count us worthy to suffer persecution.^' 

Our first meeting with the Korean Christians will not soon 
be forgotten. The trip across the narrow strait between 
Japan and Korea was decidedly rough. We had crossed 
the Pacific with such comfort that we had fondly imagined 
ourselves to be good sailors. But that comparatively short 
passage of a single night brought us to grief. The winds 
and tides that alternately sweep back and forth between 
the Japan and Eastern seas usually keep the Korea Strait 
rather tumultuous, and this time a recent storm had stirred 
up a furious sea. All night our Httle Japanese steamer 
pitched and rolled through the assaulting waves, while 
we 

Well, I told the "boy" to call us an hour before reaching 
Fusan. He smiled assent and called us ten minutes before 
instead of sixty. Hastily tumbling out of our berths and 
donning our clothes, we jumped into a waiting sampan 
with the hospitable missionaries who had already boarded 
the steamer. It was nearly half past ten o'clock and there 
was no time for breakfast, nor had we appetite for it. So 
we proceeded at once to the building where the Korean 
Christians had been for some time awaiting us, troops of 
them having met us at the foot of the hOl and escorted us 
up the road. The seasickness from which we had just risen 
was not the best preparation for speaking; but after a 
felicitous address of welcome by one of the Koreans, a him- 
dred voices rose in a song of praise. Such congregational 
singing ! It was so hearty and yet so truly worshipful that 
it was a physical and spiritual tonic. Not a Hne could we 
imderstand, till suddenly from out of the unintelHgible 
words there fairly leaped two that we recognized: ''Jesus, 
Hallelujah ! " There being no Korean equivalents for them, 



536 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

the missionaries had taught the people to use the terms so 
famihar to us. We forgot our seasickness as those wondrous 
words sounded in our ears. One could have had no more 
inspiring theme, and so I spoke on the meaning of "Jesus, 
Hallelujah!" 

Wherever we went in Korea nothing stirred us more 
deeply than the singing of the Korean Christians. A 
stranger in a strange land enters a room filled with strange 
people, who greet him in a strange tongue and then begin 
to sing a strange tune. The voices are not melodious and 
they do not always keep the key. But the singing plainly 
voices the aspirations of a fervent and genuine experience. 
Those Koreans sing as they pray — with all their hearts. 
Unfamiliar as the language is, the visitor is thrilled by the 
exultant ring of a living, joyous faith. And the mud walls 
and the dark faces and all the strange surroundings fade 
from view, and one feels that he is no longer among strangers 
but in the household of faith and love. 

I have since journeyed far and have seen many places 
and peoples. But there still lives to my vision the himible 
chapels on those Korean hills, with worshipping Koreans 
sitting Oriental fashion on the floor. I can see their faces 
Hght up as I spoke to them of Jesus as our revelation of the 
love of God, Jesus as our Saviour from sin, Jesus as our 
Friend and King, Jesus as the Giver of such peace and joy 
that there is no word so appropriate for true disciples as 
"Hallelujah." Even as I write, I seem to hear the unison 
of^those eager voices as, in glad response to my closing re- 
quest, they joined me in repeating the words: "Jesus, Halle- 
lujah," and then with the reverent petition of their leader 
as he prayed for us all, while the white-robed worshippers 
bowed with their faces to the floor. 

A visit to Korea is a tonic to faith. As one travels through 
the country, facing crowds of Christians from Fusan to 
Syenchjom, it is difficult to realize that Protestant mis- 
sions in Korea date only from 1884, and that the great 
host of commimicants and adherents in the Pyengyang 
field alone began with the baptism of a handful of men in 



KOREAN CHRISTIANS 537 

January, 1894. "Will it be permanent?" some are ask- 
ing. Well, a willingness to support theiiH)wn work without 
dependence upon the foreigner's money, an eagerness to 
extend the gospel to their countrymen, a persistence in 
Christian fidelity when left without missionary supervi- 
sion, and a patient endurance of persecution — these are 
surely encouraging indications of genuineness of puipose. 
Many a time as I studied the movement in the \nllages of 
Korea, it seemed to me that the Son of Man was again 
walking upon earth and calling to lowly men: "Follow me,'' 
and that again men were "straightway" leaving all and fol- 
lowing Him. As I sat in their lowly chapels and com- 
mimed with them, I could see how the gospel had enhght- 
ened their hearts and how their once joyless Kves now 
centred in the Church of God which gave them their only 
light and peace. 

Taking Korean Christians as a whole, the facts that have 
been stated regarding their giving, their study of the Bible, 
their zeal for the conversion of others, and the consistency 
of their daily lives, should protect them from the charge 
of being unintelHgent and merely emotional Christians. 
Their confession of heinous sins during the intensity of re- 
vivals has been cited as evidence that their Christianity 
is shallow. It is odd that any one should draw such a 
conclusion. Penitence of heart led those poor Koreans to 
confess to the very sins which notoriously exist among 
those who are called "Christians" in Europe and America. 
It ill becomes travellers from countries where such sins are 
not confessed until investigations expose them to criticise 
Christians in Korea who have the grace to confess them 
voluntarily. 

For myseK, I cannot withhold the tribute of my confi- 
dence and love for the Korean Christians. I met them in 
various parts of the country, in villages and cities, churches 
and homes; and everywhere I was profoundly impressed 
by their sincerity and devotion. We arrived at Chairyung 
about dark one Saturday evening, after a journey of five 
hours in chairs from the railway-station. Tired and dusty, 



538 THE MASTERY OF THE ] Ai{ EAST 

I did not expect to meet the Christians that evening. 
Learning, however, that many of them had assembled in 
the church, I went over, and during the meeting asked 
them to tell me in their own way what they found in Christ 
that led them to love and serve him. One after another 
the men rose and answered my question. I jotted down 
their replies, and find the following in my note-book: ''De- 
liverance from sin," ''forgiveness," "peace," "eternal life," 
"guidance," "strength," "power to do," ^^joy," "com- 
fort." Surely those earnest Koreans had found something 
of value in Christ. As we bowed together in a closing prayer, 
my heart went out to them as to those who, with fewer 
advantages than I had enjoyed, had nevertheless learned 
more than I of the deep things of God. Childlike? Yes, 
they are; but it was the Master himself who said to his 
disciples, and through them to us all: "Except ye turn and 
become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the 
kingdom of heaven." 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

TYPE AND PROBLEMS OF KOREAN RELIGIOUS 
THOUGHT 

Although bordering China and only a few hours from 
Japan, with tides of Chinese and Japanese Hfe and thought 
alternately sweeping back and forth throughout the length 
of the country, we nevertheless find ourselves in a different 
religious atmosphere when we enter the Christian churches 
of Korea. Korean temperament is quite distinct from that 
of China and Japan. Less stolid and materiahstic than 
the Chinese, less alert and martial than the Japanese, the 
Korean is more susceptible and trustful than either. He 
responds more readily to suggestion from the outside. His 
heart is more easily touched by the rehgious message; his 
faith is more childlike, and his spiritual vision more un- 
troubled by doubt. He came to Christianity out of deeper 
sorrows than the self-confident Chinese and the masterful 
Japanese. The missionaries in each country have felt that 
the character and trend of the native mind mth which they 
had to deal called for special emphasis upon certain theologi- 
cal doctrines, which, while not fundamentally at variance 
with the equally evangelical doctrines that the other body 
of missionaries were emphasizing, were nevertheless differ- 
ent. The range of New Testament teaching is wide, and 
each national group of Christians, like each individual be- 
liever, instinctively appropriates the truths which impress 
them as best adapted to their needs. The oppressed, de- 
spairing, impoverished, emotional Korean approaches Christ 
from a different angle than the proud, ambitious, and all- 
conquering Japanese. Korean and Japanese types of Chris- 
tianity are, therefore, as different as the Moravian and 
Presbyterian types in the West. 

The Japanese Christian subjects the teachings of the 
missionaries to his own independent scrutiny. The Ko- 

539 



540 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

rean Christian takes them without question. The former 
is a trieological progressive; the latter a theological con- 
servative. No cjuestions regarding miracles or inspiration 
trouble the Korean Christian. He implicitly believes every- 
thing that he has been taught by his missionary teachers. 
The typical missionary of the first quarter century after the 
opening of the country was a man of the Puritan type. He 
kept the Sabbath as our New England forefathers did a 
century ago. He looked upon dancing, smoking, and card- 
playing as sins in which no true follower of Christ should 
indulge. In theology and biblical criticism he was strongly 
conservative, and he held as a vital truth the premille- 
narian view of the second coming of Christ. The higher 
criticism and liberal theology were deemed dangerous 
heresies. In most of the evangehcal churches of America 
and Great Britain, conservatives and evangelical Hberals 
have learned to live together in peace; but in Korea the 
evangelical liberal, whose interpretation of the Bible differs 
from the commonly accepted one, sometimes has a rough 
road to travel. 

The Korean converts naturally reproduced the prevailing 
type. The result was a Christian experience like that of 
Bunyan's Pilgrim. Salvation was an escape from the City 
of Destruction. Satan was not a rhetorical expression, but 
a real and malignant personage — ^^your adversary^' who, 
"as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may 
devour." The accounts of the Garden of Eden, the ex- 
perience of Jonah, the virgin birth of our Lord, the resur- 
rection of Lazarus, and of the gates of pearls and streets of 
pure gold in the Heavenly City were taken as historical de- 
scriptions of actual facts. Nowhere else in the world is there 
a higher percentage of church members who pra}^, study 
the Bible, attend devotional services, give proportionately 
of their money, and manifest evangelistic zeal in spreading 
the gospel; and nowhere else are there greater strictness of 
Sabbath observance, rigidity of doctrinal conviction, and 
inflexibility of opposition to anything that does not accord 
with the accepted type. 

The deficiencies in the Korean religious type are a cer- 



KOREAN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 541 

tain lack of largeness of view and of recognition of the fact 
that believers of equal piety and loyalty to Christ differ in 
their interpretation of the Bible and in the degree of hberty 
that should be permitted in matters that do not involve 
questions of right or wrong but merely of Christian judg- 
ment and expediency. The Korean line is sharply drawn. 
The area of duty in both doctrine and practice is strictly 
defined; and every professing Christian who does not keep 
within it is counted a heretic. Intensity rather than 
breadth characterizes the typical Korean Christian. In- 
tense in advocacy of the truth, some say; intense in advo- 
cacy of only a part of the truth, others reply. 

Another characteristic of Korean Christianity is compara- 
tive indifference to the social application of the gospel. 
The thought of the Korean churches is fixed on the next 
world. The present world is regarded as so utterly lost 
that it cannot be saved in this dispensation; nor is it be- 
lieved that the Divine plan contemplates such an end. 
The duty of the church now is to preach the gospel "for a 
witness/' to gather out the elect, and to leave the world 
till Christ shall return. The church must be composed 
of men and women of clean lives; but efforts to clean up 
the community and to bring about better social conditions 
are regarded as a use of time and strength that could be 
more usefully employed in other ways. "What are you 
doing in the way of social reform ?" a Korea missionary was 
once asked. "Nothing/' was the reply, "we are too busy 
preaching the gospel." Some Korea missionaries would 
emphatically disavow such a sweeping statement, and with 
justice, for Christianity in Korea has done many things to 
alleviate suffering and to secure proper treatment for the 
sick and defective classes. The mission hospitals scattered 
over the country, the Home for Destitute Children in Seoul, 
and the work for lepers on an island near Fusan, all testify 
to the fact that the missionaries have not been indifferent 
to physical suffering. If they have done little to remedy 
bad conmiunity conditions outside of the membership of 
the churches, it should be borne in mind that, under the 



:j1J IJii:: .MASTERY OF THE EAR EAST 

old political regime, the Korean officials were so lazy, cor- 
rupt, and reactionary that the missionaries could do nothing 
with them. But speaking broadly, and making due allow- 
ance for exceptional missionaries and institutions, the gen- 
eral type of Korean Christianity is individuahstic rather 
than social. The world is a sinking ship, and the best that 
the church can do is to rescue as many as possible of the 
passengers. The once popular revival hymn expresses the 
thought : 

"Pull for the shore, sailor; 
Pull for the shore; 
Leave the poor old stranded wreck, 
And pull for the shore." 

This rescue work has been pressed with splendid devo- 
tion, in the eager hope that our Lord will return in the flesh 
in the immediate future and set up his earthly kingdom. 
Education, sanitation, social and economic conditions were 
deemed relatively unimportant in such an emergency. 
The mission schools were to be limited to the children of 
the church, and attempts to extend their benefits to the 
children of non-Christians were frowned upon as tending 
to carry the work of the missions beyond their proper sphere. 
Even the hospitals, which are deemed so essential a part 
of missionary work in many other fields, were long regarded 
in Korea as useful merely for opening doors of opportimity 
for preaching; and when they were no longer needed for 
that purpose, some missionaries favored their continuance 
only on a small and limited scale. Many of the mission- 
aries have now passed beyond this stage. They regard the 
medical work with justifiable pride as a legitimate and 
powerful missionary agency, and they welcome to their 
schools the children of non-Christian parents who are will- 
ing to have their sons and daughters receive a Christian 
education. But in some of the missions this freedom was 
gained at great cost. Let those who are disposed to criti- 
cise the missionaries for their conservatism remember that 
even in America and Great Britain the idea of the social 



KOREAN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 543 

application of the gospel and the consequent duty of the 
church to Christianize the social order is comparatively 
new, and that there are still devout Christians in the West 
who deem such effort a semi-heresy, or at best a diversion 
of precious time and energy from the more pressing task 
of '^preaching the gospel.'^ ^ 

The revival in Fyengyang which culminated in January, 
1907, illustrated the characteristics of Korean temperament. 
It was attended by extraordinary physical and mental 
manifestations — shouts, groans, \dolent weeping, falling 
upon the ground, frothing at the mouth, and paroxysms of 
varying intensity, culminating in complete insensibility. 
These manifestations were attributed by many persons to 
the conflict between Christ and the evil spirits sent by 
Satan to resist the gracious work of God ; for demon posses- 
sion is accepted as a fact in Korea as it was in the first cen- 
tury, and the absence of such signs at other times and 
places is lamented as an evidence of spiritual decadence. 
It is hazardous to dogmatize on a subject of which we know 
so little. It is historically true, however, that such scenes 
have been usually witnessed when a simple-minded emo- 
tional people have suddenly been brought face to face with 
the tremendous eternal issues of sin and salvation, heaven 
and hell. The Reverend Doctor John F. Goucher, of Bal- 
timore, says that in his early ministry he was perplexed 
because his preaching was received so quietly by his people; 
nobod)^ shouted or fainted or became hysterical even when 
his themes were of the most searching and soul-stirring 
kind. He resolved to make an experiment. Going to 
some ignorant mountaineers at a distance, people who had 
been wholly beyond the reach of church work, he persuaded 
them to attend a service. Before it was concluded, men and 
women were uncontrollably excited; groans and wailings 
filled the room; strong men writhed in anguish, and some, 
jumping into the air, fell insensible to the floor, foaming 
at the mouth. Doctor Goucher became convinced that the 

1 1 have discussed this subject more fully in another book — Rising Churches 
in Non-Christian Lands, pp. 155 seq. 



544 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

difference was not in him or in his message but in his con- 
gregations, and that given the same conditions anywhere — 
an ignorant, excitable people and a vivid portrayal of the 
consequences of sin and the pardon offered in Christ — the 
same results would follow. If this theory is correct, the 
presence or absence of such signs indicates httle regarding 
the genuineness of a revival but much regarding the state 
of the people. Those who receive the gospel with like sin- 
cerity may differ widely in their external manifestations of 
feeling. The processes and results may be genuine in both 
cases, but the human signs may be quite different. 

The Korea missionaries made earnest efforts to hold this 
abnormal excitement in check. They saw its perils, and 
yet they felt obHged to be cautious about rebuking it, for 
they knew that they were dealing with the very real religious 
experience of sincere men and women, however extravagant 
it might appear to educated and self -controlled foreigners. 
Those in whom the gospel message stirs no such emotions 
may well hesitate to plume themselves upon their superi- 
ority. More learning and reserve they undoubtedly have, 
but perhaps a shallower experience also. It is not alto- 
gether a reason for self-satisfaction if we have become so 
blase imder oft-repeated preaching of the truth that it no 
longer arouses anything more than a languid interest in 
us. The facts of spiritual life and death do not become 
less tremendous or significant when people advance in so- 
called civilization and culture. 

Recent years have brought severe tests upon the churches 
of Korea. The period of isolation and seclusion has passed. 
The once ^^ Hermit Nation" is now wide open. Through 
the open doors a variety of good, bad, and indifferent 
influences have poured in. Steamships, railways, and 
telegraphs have brought the world to Korea. New condi- 
tions have caused economic disturbances and readjustments. 
Opportunities to make and to spend money delight and 
bewilder the simple-hearted Koreans. A tide of material- 
ism is sweeping over the countr}^ The life of the average 
Korean is no longer an empty one apart from the church, 



KOREAN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 545 

and he is almost intoxicated by the inrush of new ideas 
and methods. Will the early evangelical fervor be main- 
tained in such circumstances? A Korean elder expressed 
to me anxiety on this point. He said that at first practically 
every Christian was an evangelist, but that now there are 
some who are content with Simday worship and prayer- 
meeting attendance. A missionary writes: '^One result of 
the Japanese occupation is that pressure of business is very 
much greater upon the Koreans than it used to be. The 
Christians are so occupied with worldly affairs that they 
do not attend our Bible classes as they used to do. I do 
not think that it is wholly a decrease of interest or dropping 
away from faith. They observe and gather on Sunday as 
before and seem to be leading consistent Christian lives; 
but they do not have the week-day leisure that they once 
had. It will take some years for the church to adjust it- 
self to the new conditions." Perhaps the leakage in church 
membership, to which I have referred on a preceding page, 
may be due, in part at least, to these considerations as well 
as to the emotional temperament of the Koreans, Some 
losses are inevitable in such circumstances. Churches in 
many lands have had to pass through such a period of transi- 
tion. Wherever isolated communities have been suddenly 
brought out of stagnant seclusion into the whirling currents 
of the world, readjustments and realignments have neces- 
sarily followed. The old appeals have lost some of their force 
and other interests have imperatively demanded attention. 
The changing spirit was manifested as early as 1910 in 
the so-called "Million Campaign for Christ." Never was 
an evangelistic movement more carefully planned; never 
were plans more systematically carried out. City dis- 
tricting, house-to-house canvassing, newspaper advertising, 
handbill and tract distributing, earnest preaching, personal 
work with indi\dduals — all these were energetically and 
skilfully used "along the most approved lines of western- 
world revival meetings." Every theatre and public hall 
in Seoul was engaged for the month, so that no other pubHc 
meetings or entertainments could be given to distract at- 



546 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

tention. A column a day was secured in each of the six 
daily papers. Every family in the city was visited every 
day for six days. But the ex-pected response was not forth- 
coming. There were, it is true, largely attended meetings, 
and many Koreans expressed a desire to become Christians; 
but the net results were not what had been expected. From 
the reports of several stations I cull such statements as the 
following: "We did all that men could do. Many Chris- 
tians received an inspiration for personal work; but the 
congregations show no increase beyond what is to be ex- 
pected each year.'^ "The church was filled nightly and 
between 400 and 500 professed conversion; but almost none 
of them can be foimd now." The missionaries were dis- 
appointed, but far from discouraged, concluding that the 
most effective way to reach and hold Koreans was "the 
man-to-man method" of constant indi\ddual effort supple- 
menting the regular services of the churches. 

Difficulties of various kinds are beginning to perplex the 
Korean Christian. He had imiocently imagined that in 
these later days all white men were Christians like the mis- 
sionaries, and he has learned to his sorrow that many, who 
proudly refer to their own countr}^ as "Christian," and to 
Korea as "heathen," are really irreligious and, in some 
cases, dissolute — ^brutal in their treatment of Asiatics, lustful 
in their relations with women, and blasphemous in their 
references to the God whom the Korean believer reveres. 

His conception of Christianity, too, is being disturbed. 
The happy, radiant, unsophisticated believers, trustful as 
little children, and accepting the Bible in the most Hteral 
sense from Genesis to Revelation, are receiving the dis- 
quieting knowledge that not all of the devoted servants of 
God in other lands interpret the Bible as they have been 
taught to interpret it; that reverent opinions differ as to 
whether the accounts of the Garden of Eden, the experi- 
ences of Job and Jonah, and the descriptions of hell and 
the heavenly city should be interpreted Hterally or figura- 
tively; and that men who differ regarding these and other 
matters are equally earnest and active in loving and serving 



KOREAN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 547 

Chiist as their Lord and Savioui*. At first the Korean is 
stuimed. Then he is apt to become intolerant in attitude 
toward the Christians who differ with him and to imagine 
that he is more righteous than they; or else he goes to the 
other extreme and loses confidence in his missionary teachers. 
The present tendency is toward the former course, but the 
result is disastrous in either case. How to giude the Ko- 
rean churches in this period of ine\dtable transition and 
readjustment is a difficult and dehcate problem. 

The problem of missionary relationship to the native 
church does not exist in Korea in the advanced form in 
which one finds it in Japan. The reasons for this have 
been discussed in other chapters. It is true that the Ko- 
rean Christian of to-day is not as docile under missionary 
leadership as he was a dozen years ago; but the generahza- 
tion still holds that in Japan the churches dominate the 
missionaries, and in Korea the missionaries dominate the 
churches. The troubles of this kind that the Korea mis- 
sionaries now have are with a certain wilfulness of disposi- 
tion, a child's tendency to sudden alternations of feeling — 
gusts of temper and excitability. The missionaries are 
rightly devolving larger responsibihties upon the Korean 
church leaders, and they are meeting v^dth some success in 
doing so; but as one missionary rather anxiously put it: 
"The Koreans, by thousands of years of misrule, are hke 
children. Spiritually, they are in advance of many Chris- 
tian nations; but they lack balance, foresight, the essence 
of seK-government; and it will require years of discipHne 
to form it in them." 

Presbyterians, with what some regarded as an excess of 
caution, deemed it prudent to defer organization of churches 
until there was suitable material for officers. When quah- 
fied men were developed and the larger groups were formed 
into churches, these churches were carried with no other 
external bond of union than the Presbyterian Council, 
which was formed in 1889 of representatives of the four 
Presbyterian missions. This body acted as a governing 
body until September 17, 1907, when the independent Union 



548 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Presbyterian Church of Korea was constituted^ with thirty- 
three missionaries and elders, representing thirty-eight 
churches, under authority given by the general assemblies 
of the four Presbyterian Churches, whose missions were 
united in the General Council of Missions in Korea — Ameri- 
can Presbyterian North, Presbyterian South, Canadian 
Presbyterian, and Australian Presbyterian. The Presby- 
tery at once ordained seven Koreans to the ministry, and 
adopted the Confession of Faith and Form of Government 
which were adopted by the Presbyterian Church in India 
at its organization in 1904, taking the former entire, and the 
latter with only a few modifications. With the growth of 
the church, the original Presbytery was subdivided, imtil 
six presbyteries united in forming a General Assembly, 
which held its first meeting in September, 1912. 

The missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal Church were 
also conservative in ecclesiastical procedure, carrying most 
of their Korean converts as probationers in connection with 
the mission for a considerable period. They began the 
formal organization of churches in 1888. A Mission Con- 
ference was constituted in 1904, but it was not set apart as 
a fully empowered Annual Conference until 1908. The 
creed and discipline are those of the parent church in 
America. It is now a strong and vigorous body, under the 
leadership of an able American bishop, the Reverend Doctor 
Herbert Welch, and it is energetically developing its work 
and institutions among the three millions of Koreans who 
occupy the territory which, by agreements with other com- 
munions, is regarded as the special field of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in Korea. At the meeting of the Con- 
ference in 1918, Bishop Welch ordained twenty-eight Ko- 
reans to the ministry, which is believed to be the largest 
number of ministers admitted at one time to any annual 
conference of that communion anywhere in the world. 
The Southern Methodists organized a District Confer- 
ence in 1897, which was for a time attached to their confer- 
ence in China, but which is now a full Conference with seven 
districts under its supervision. 



KOREAN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 549 

It will be noted that^ with the exception of the com- 
paratively small mission of the Church of England^ the mis- 
sionaries and churches in Korea are divided into two main 
denominational groups, Methodist and Presbyterian; the 
former representing a union of two Methodist bodies, and 
the latter of four Presbyterian bodies. The union in each 
group is complete, and in some cases finds outward expres- 
sion in institutions, such as the college and theological 
seminary in Pyengyang supported by the Presbyterian 
missions, and the theological seminary in Seoul supported 
by the Methodist missions. Federated relations between 
the two denominational groups have existed since 1904, 
when the General Coimcil of Evangelical Missions in Korea 
was formed, whose aim was announced to be ^'co-operation 
in mission efforts and eventually the organization in Korea 
of but one native evangelical church. '^ Negotiations look- 
ing toward such a union have been carried on in a tentative 
way, but their consummation has been delayed not only 
by the difficulties which beset organic union elsewhere, 
but by differences in mission policies and methods, par- 
ticularly in educational work and in attitude toward the 
government's desire that mission schools should take out 
permits under the educational regulations of the Govern- 
ment-General. 

There have been, however, several co-operative efforts 
of the two denominational groups. Territory has been re- 
distributed so that each mission now has a separate field 
without overlapping the fields of other missions. Mission- 
aries and money are thus used to the best advantage and 
local competition between denominations is avoided. This 
has involved the transfer of hundreds and, in some cases, 
of thousands of Korean Christians from Methodist to Pres- 
byterian affihations and from Presbyterian to Methodist; 
but the transfers have been effected with perfect good feel- 
ing. (If Methodists and Presbj^erians can do this in Korea, 
why can they not do it in America?) Another successful 
co-operative effort is in the preparation and distribution 
of Christian literature. Bible translations have been made 



55(; THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

by imiou committees of missionaries. The year 1911 was 
signalized by the completion of the whole Bible in Korean, 
a notable achievement. The Korean Religious Tract So- 
ciety, composed of representatives of various commmiions, 
has produced books, tracts, and periodicals for the Korean 
churches and their evangelistic and educational workers. 

In institutional work notable success has attended the 
group of union institutions in Seoul. One of these, the 
Chosen Christian College, will stand as an enduring monu- 
ment to the memory of one of the great missionaries of the 
modern church — the Reverend Horace Grant Underwood, 
D.D., LL.D. His missionary career from his arrival in 
Korea in 1884 to his lamented death, October 12, 1916, was 
rich in incident and achievement. He was the first or- 
dained missionary to Korea. He baptized the first convert 
in 1886, opened the first school, also in 1886, organized the 
first church and administered the first sacrament of the 
Lord^s Supper to Koreans in 1887. In the same year, he 
made the first of those long itinerating tours into the in- 
terior which, continued by him and his successors, spread 
the knowledge of the Gospel far and wide in Korea and 
resulted in groups of believers in himdreds of towns and 
villages. He began the literary work of Christian mis- 
sions in Korea, and in 1889 published the first of the long 
list of volumes with which he and other missionaries have 
enriched the Hterature of missions; and his translation of 
the Gospel of St. Mark in 1887 first made any part of the 
Bible accessible to the people in written form. A district 
of diocesan proportions was under his care, and he did in 
it the work of an apostle — holding meetings, baptizing 
converts, conducting Bible conferences, organizing groups 
and churches, ordaining elders, settling disputes, and coun- 
selling leaders. He often walked upon these tours, slept 
in the wretched Korean huts or inns, and exposed himself 
freely to physical hardships from which many a man would 
have shrunk. 

He had extraordinary influence with high ofiicials and 
members of the Korean royal family, including the Em- 



KOllEAN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 551 

peror himself who often consulted him and sent him a 
valuable pearl ring as a wedding present. How the Em- 
peror clmig to him at the time of the assassination of the 
Queen in 1895, and finally slept with his head upon the 
missionaiy's shoulder , has been described in an earlier chap- 
ter. After the annexation of Korea by the Japanese, they 
were for a time somewhat suspicious of him in view of his 
known intimacy with the royal family and his sympathies 
with the frightened people. But they soon came to learn 
and to value the high quality and absolute trustworthiness 
of the man; and when he left Korea for the last time, the 
authorities showed him marked honor. On the twenty- 
fifth anniversary of his wedding, March 13, 1914, nearly all 
the notable men and women of Korea's capital called to 
tender their congratulations — ^Japanese officials, Korean 
nobles, members of the consular corps, missionaries and 
Korean Christians of all communions, and faculties and 
student deputations of schools, while the tables were loaded 
with presents. He was a man of conspicuous ability and 
force of character. His con\dctions were intense and his 
temperament enthusiastic, but his spirit was cathoHc and 
his vision broad. He was once offered the vice-presidency 
of a great corporation in America at a salary of $25,000 a 
year, but he felt that his life was consecrated to the mis- 
sionary enterprise in Korea, and he unhesitatingly declined 
the offer. It was in the mind of this man that the Chosen 
Christian College in Seoul was conceived, and it was he 
who won the good-will of the Japanese Government-General 
for it, became its first president, and personally secm-ed the 
first gifts of $77,000 in America for the erection of buildings. 
Another union institution in Seoul is the Pierson Memo- 
rial Bible School, founded by friends of the late Reverend 
Doctor Arthur T. Pierson, whose flaming zeal did so much 
to arouse the missionary interest of his generation. While 
the Chosen Christian College and the Pierson Memorial 
are jointly supported by Methodists and Presbyterians, 
they do not have the imited constituency of all the mis- 
sionary bodies in Korea that is enjoyed by the remarkable 



552 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

group of medical institutions known as the Severance Union 
Medical College and its affiliated Severance Union Hos- 
pital and Nurses Training School. The hospital is the suc- 
cessor of the Royal Korean Hospital, which was founded by 
Horace N. Allen, M.D., in 1884. In the year 1900 0. R. 
Avison, M.D., who had become its superintendent several 
years before, enlisted the interest of that Christian phi- 
lanthropist, Mr. Lewis H. Severance of Cleveland, Ohio, 
whose generQus gifts, followed by those of his son, Mr. 
John L. Severance, and his daughter, Mrs. Francis F. 
Prentiss, have made possible one of the most complete 
medical plants in Asia. The work of its medical and sur- 
gical staff, headed by Doctor Avison, has won the high 
commendation of such competent judges as Doctor William 
H. Welch of Johns Hopkins Medical College in Baltimore 
and Doctor Simon Flexner of the Rockefeller Bureau of 
Medical Research in New York, both of whom personally 
inspected the institution during their trip to the Far East 
a few years ago. Major-General Arthur Mac Arthur, of the 
United States Army, wrote: ^^In a very extended tour of 
the entire East, I found no institution doing more beneficent 
work than the Severance Hospital in Seoul." The gradua- 
tion in 1908 of the first class to take the full course in medi- 
cine and surgery in the Medical College was recognized by 
the Japanese as well as by Koreans and foreigners as an 
occasion of great interest, the seven Koreans receiving their 
diplomas from no less a personage than Prince Ito, who 
made a warmly congratulatory address. The Government- 
General has fixed a high standard for the practice of medi- 
cine, but the graduates of the Severance Union Medical 
College meet it, and the first certificates that were issued 
by the government were, given to these yomig men on the 
day following their graduation. The semiofficial Seoul 
Press, edited by a Japanese, devoted six columns of its 
issue, June 5, to a highly commendatory account of the 
graduating exercises, and editorially declared that they 
"marked the opening of a new chapter in the history of 
medical science in Korea." 



KOREAN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 553 

The perplexing problems which mission schools are facing, 
in connection with the educational regulations of the gov- 
ernment; have been discussed in a separate chapter, but 
some other phases of the mission educational problem may 
be noted here. The Korea missions were late in beginning 
educational work. This was partly because the missions 
themselves were comparatively new. The first Protestant 
missionary did not enter Korea until a quarter of a century 
after the beginning of work in Japan and three-quarters of 
a century after the beginning of work in China. Schools 
were not necessary to secure a foothold, as in some other 
lands, and the missionaries were so engrossed by their 
evangelistic opportunities that everything else fell into the 
background. There was, too, a period when many of the 
missionaries feared that large schools would foster the spirit 
of institutionalism and divert energy from preaching the 
gospel. While the Presbyterians had some small day- 
schools of primary grade almost from the beginning of their 
work, they did not have a permanently established academy 
for boys imtil 1900, and only one for girls. The Methodist 
missionaries opened a boarding-school for boys in Seoul in 
1886, and the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society a board- 
ing-school for girls in the same year, but the former did not 
reach the status of a high school until 1894, and the latter 
until some time later. Finally, the missionaries awaked to 
the fact that an illiterate church among an emotional peo- 
ple would be built on sand; that congregations could not 
be maintained on a stable basis by memorizing hymns and 
texts, learning Bible stories, and listening to the extem- 
poraneous talks of unschooled local leaders, however de- 
voted they might be; and that there must be a settled 
ministry of men competent to preach statedly and intelli- 
gently. Now, the average mission station has a boarding- 
school for boys and another for girls, and each of the two 
largest stations, Seoul and Pyengyang, has the higher in- 
stitutions already described. 

Industrial training is wisely pro\dded in several schools. 
The occasion for this form of educational work lies in the 



554 THE MASTEKV OF THE FAR EAST 

desirability of providing some means of self-help for stu- 
dents who have no money and who ought not to be given 
a support which would beget an expectation of support 
through life, and thus pauperize them at the outset. More- 
over, it is unwise to educate boys away from their former 
manner of life and not to any other in which they can 
support themselves. Such industrial training is often es- 
sential to the accomplishment of the missionary object. 
A self-supporting, indigenous church cannot be built up 
unless there are Christians who are able to maintain it. 
Education in countries whose economic conditions are so 
radically wrong as they are in many parts of Asia should 
not ignore practical needs. The Korea missionaries realize 
the importance of these considerations, and they are train- 
ing the students in their schools to a wholesome, practical 
life. The studies that are essential to mental disciphne 
and intellectual culture are carefully taught, but instruc- 
tion is also provided in farming, gardening, fruit-raising, 
blacksmithing, carpentering, furniture-making, shoemaking, 
printing, and other practical trades. In the Hugh O'Neill 
Jr. Industrial Academy in Syenchyun, for example, there 
are a model farm, garden and orchard, and shops of various 
kinds. The boys do all the work of the institution, devoting 
to it a part of every week-day. The work includes working 
out by contract, road-making, teaching in the lower schools, 
bookbinding, hat-making, making straw rope and straw 
shoes, and preparing materials for additional school-build- 
ings. The minimum of practicable expenditure has been 
maintained, and the spirit of self-dependence is diligently 
fostered. When these young men are graduated, they are 
worth something to the state as well as to the church. 
Training of this kind is given at a number of other mission 
stations. The schools for girls are equally practical, the 
courses including sewing, embroidery, cooking, and other 
household duties and economics. A Korean who marries 
a girl who has been educated at a mission school gets a 
wife who knows how to transform a dirty hovel into a decent 
and well-ordered home. 



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KOREAN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 555 

The educational regulations of the Government-General 
have caused some anxieties that are quite apart from the 
mooted question about the teaching of reHgion. The gov- 
ernment is not to be blamed for these anxieties since they 
relate to the question whether the mission institutions can 
meet the proper requirements of the authorities regarding 
buildings, grade of work, and qualifications of teachers. 
The colleges and boarding-schools are loyally endeavoring 
to do so. The policy of the boards and missions is not to 
develop a great system of general education which would 
duplicate the educational system of the government, but 
to maintain a limited number of institutions of high grade 
to serve the specific purposes for which Christian work is 
conducted in a non-Christian land. This much is clear; 
but the question of elementary schools is far from being so. 
They are maintained by the Korean Christians in connec- 
tion with their village churches. Very few of them come 
up to the standard which the government deems it neces- 
sary to impose. Their teachers do not know the Japanese 
language, which the government desires to have taught, 
and Japanese teachers conmiand higher wages than the 
schools can pay. To enable these schools to meet the re- 
quirements would involve expenditures for enlargements 
and teachers which are far beyond the ability of the poor 
Korean Christians, and which the mission boards could 
hardly undertake in addition to their other obligations. 
And yet Korea needs all its present schools, and many more. 
The census does not give the mmiber of children of elemen- 
tary school age, but Mr. Sekiya, director of the Bureau of 
Education, estimates it at one-tenth of the population, or 
nearly 1,700,000. He also says that approximately 75,000 
children are in the government elementary schools, and 
55,000 in the private schools, a total of only 130,000. It 
has been said that 98 per cent of the children of school age 
in Japan are enrolled in schools, and that 98 per cent in 
Korea are not. This reminds one of Macaulay's literary 
vice — "exaggeration in the interest of vividness '^* but it 
suggests the wide difference between Japan and Korea in 



556 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

educational facilities and the urgent need of more adequate 
school facilities in the latter country. 

The medical work of the missions is also meeting diffi- 
culties of a similar kind. The poHcy of the boards and 
missions has been to have a hospital at each central station. 
The typical hospital is a modest building, with accommoda- 
tions for only a small number of in-patients, and with but 
one foreign physician, a few instruments, and one or two 
native assistants and nurses who usually have had no train- 
ing except what he could give them. As I visited these 
hospitals, I marvelled at the amount and value of the 
medical and surgical work that the overworked and scantily 
equipped doctor was doing — treating all sorts of diseases 
and performing alone major operations which no surgeon 
in America would undertake without assisting surgeons and 
several trained nurses. 

However unsatisfactory such a hospital might be from 
the view-point of advanced modern equipment, it was in- 
finitely better than anything that the Koreans had ever 
known. Their neglect of all sanitary precautions, their 
filthy houses, their carelessness in food, their drinking from 
infected wells and streams, and their utter ignorance of the 
causes of disease combine to give every kind of malady a 
free course, and the sufferings of the afflicted are often 
grievous. To people who know nothing of sanitation, who 
believe disease to be caused by demons who must be propi- 
tiated, who were accustomed to plaster wax over suppurat- 
ing sores to keep the discharges from escaping, to feed 
sickly babies with cucumbers and chunks of half-cooked 
rice, and to treat pain by sticking a dirty iron needle into 
the affected part — to such people the least that a medical 
missionary could do with unaided hands was an imspeakable 
blessing. When a Mr. On, living about twenty-five miles 
from Taiku, had a bad case of dyspepsia, a sympathetic 
neighbor tied a cloth swab on the end of a reed, two and a 
half feet long, and pushed it down his throat as far as it 
would go, ''in order to ram the food past the sticking place." 
Unfortunately, the reed broke off and left ten and a half 



KOREAN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 557 

inches and the swab in the stomach. After five days of 
agony, the sufferer was brought to the mission hospital at 
Taiku, arriving in a pitiable condition. The hospital that 
one now finds in Taiku had not then been built. There were 
only two small, straw-thatched, mud-walled buildings, a 
home-made wooden operating-table, and a small instrument 
case. This was the equipment of the medical missionary 
when Mr. On was carried into the compound, nor was there 
any one who knew how to help in a major operation. Would 
a surgeon in the United States consent to operate in such 
circumstances ? But the alternative was death, and Doctor 
W. 0. Johnson administered an anaesthetic, opened the 
abdomen and stomach by median incisions, found the piece 
of reed with the swab attached to it lying in the stomach, 
extracted it, and nursed Mr. On to such a fine recovery 
that on the day of his discharge, he ate a big bowl of rice 
and said he wanted to walk home. 

But the day for the small, one-man hospital in Korea has 
passed. The Japanese Government-General rightly holds 
that a hospital should have a more adequate staff, plant and 
equipment. Not only this, but the government has opened 
free public hospitals in many of the cities where the mis- 
sion hospitals are located, and has provided them with spa- 
cious buildings, modern operating-rooms and apparatus, 
and a large corps of physicians, surgeons, and nurses. At 
Chungju, for example, where the little mission hospital 
has one physician and no trained nurse, the government 
hospital has seven doctors, a dentist, an eye, ear, nose, and 
throat specialist, a druggist, a business superintendent, 
an ample supply of nurses and helpers, and enough money 
to make their budget as elastic as their needs. 

In a large metropoHtan centre like Seoul, where half a 
dozen missions can join in a union institution, and where a 
great philanthropist can be found to equip it, the problem 
can be successfully solved, as it has been in the Severance 
Union Hospital, with its numerous staff and modern facili- 
ties. But what can the isolated hospitals in the provincial 
cities do? The medical missionaries have long keenly felt 



558 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

the limitations to which they have been subjected. They 
are well-educated men, graduates of American and British 
medical colleges of recognized standing, thoroughly com- 
petent professionally. But they cannot do the impossible. 
Two foreign physicians, at least one foreign tramed nurse, 
and several native physicians and nurses should be deemed 
a minimum staff for a hospital under present conditions, 
together with a considerable increase in financial support. 
The Severance Union Medical College and Nurses Training 
School are turning out the native physicians and nurses, 
but the foreign staff and the increased budget must come 
from America and Great Britain. This is delightfully easy 
to say; but any one who innocently imagines that it is easy 
to accomplish little knows how difficult it is to secure 
enough highly trained physicians and nurses who are will- 
ing to spend their lives in a squalid Korean city, on a mis- 
sionary's salary, and with an equipment which, however 
improved, would still be small compared with the elabor- 
ately equipped hospitals in the United States. 

There are no more self-sacrificing men in the world than 
the medical missionaries in Asia and Africa. They are 
doing a wonderful work for humanity with the scantiest 
material resources. To the poor and suffering people the 
sympathetic and devoted missionary physician is like an 
angel of mercy. His power in alleviating pain and in heal- 
ing disease is miraculous in their eyes. They almost wor- 
ship him, and with reason. Like his divine Master, the 
Great Physician, he goes "about doing good'' and "healing 
all manner of disease," "for God 'is' with him." 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

THE POLITICO-MISSIONARY COMPLICATION IN 
KOREA 

I HAVE described in another chapter the attitude of the 
Japanese Government toward missionaries and churches 
in Japan, the freedom that all religious work enjoys, and 
the recognition that is given to Christianity and some of its 
representatives. In Korea, the attitude of the Government- 
General and its various officials is somewhat different. 
The reason does not He in opposition to Christianity as a 
rehgion, but in the peculiarity of the political conditions 
and in the problems which grow out of the influence of the 
foreign missionary body over the Korean Christians. The 
Japanese attitude cannot be properly characterized as one 
of hostihty. Indeed, it frequently has been one of cor- 
diahty and helpfulness, particularly toward the mission- 
aries in Seoul. This has been especially noticeable in 
recent years. But for some time after the Japanese occu- 
pation, there was considerable irritation because of the 
alleged anti-Japanese attitude of missionaries. The Japa- 
nese regarded them as inimical to their interests and as 
more or less consciously giving such encouragement to the 
Koreans as to embarrass the Government-General. 

Civil and military officials did not hesitate to express 
their concern in personal conversations, and the vernacular 
press in Japan teemed with bitter attacks upon the mis- 
sionaries, especially those from America. The more care- 
ful Japan Times undoubtedly reflected the common view 
when it editorially said: '^If there was a time when we en- 
tertained some misgivings about Christian missionaries in 
Korea, these suspicions have long since vanished with us. 
They wiU find us among the last, therefore, to accuse them 
of meddhng with poHtical affairs in Korea. But the fact 

559 



560 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

remains that they are veiy influential among the Koreans, 
especially amongst the younger and rising generation. It 
is also a fact that dissatisfied and aggressive Koreans, who 
are constantl}^ conspiring against the protectorate regime, 
are largely those who at one time or another have come 
under missionary influence. ' Hence arises the circumstance 
that missionaries, their churches and schools in Korea, are 
made the rallying-points for these malcontents, though such 
a thing may be wholly against the intentions and wishes of 
these missionaries, as we know they are. However against 
the aims and endeavors of the missionaries these acts of 
their fostering may be then, it is nevertheless true that the 
latter are causing considerable mischief in the friendly re- 
lations with Japan and Korea. Here then is a very trouble- 
some problem which we are facing." ^ 

The situation is a complicated one, and we should do the 
Japanese the justice of attempting to understand their 
point of view. The Japanese are intensely nationahstic. 
Indeed they represent the most highly developed type of 
nationalism in the world. It led them into the war with 
Russia, since nationalism was endangered by Russian ag- 
gression in the Far East. And nationalism is the regulative 
principle of Japanese rule in Korea. Realizing the island 
isolation and the limited area and productivity of their 
own land, the Japanese look upon the adjacent peninsula 
as necessary to afford an outlet for Japan's overcrowded 
population and to produce the additional food supplies 
that the nation needs. Moreover, from a military and politi- 
cal view-point, it is the most exposed portion of the Em- 
pire and the one regarding which the Japanese are most 
sensitive. Close to Vladivostok, bordering Manchuria, 
and only a few hours by steamer from Chefoo, it would be 
the danger-zone in case of international complications, since 
Japan there comes in contact with China and some of the 
powerful nations of Europe — a serious matter in this im- 
happy era of racial jealousies and strife. Japan has learned 
this to her bitter cost, as her most serious trouble at home 

1 Editorial, Aprils, 1910. 



THE POLITICO-MISSIONARY COMPLICATION 561 

(the Satsuma Rebellion) and two foreign wars (the China- 
Japan War and the Russia-Japan War) were caused by 
the Korean situation. It is clear that if Japan should 
again become embroiled with China, or with any Western 
Power, Korea would be the battle-groimd, as it has been in 
every war that Japan has ever waged. The attitude of the 
Koreans, therefore, is of vital importance to the Japanese. 
While they are not strong from a military point of view, 
17,000,000 of sullen, embittered people between a Japanese 
army and its foreign foe, or at the rear of a Japanese army 
at the front, would be a serious menace. 

For these reasons the Japanese feel that they cannot be 
content with ruling Korea as an outlying dependency, as 
America rules the Philippines and Great Britain rules India, 
but that they must amalgamate it with the Empire and as- 
similate its people, teaching them the Japanese language, 
infusing them with Japanese ideals, and developing in them 
patriotic feeling for Japan as their mother country. The 
Honorable M. Komatsu, then director of the Bureau of 
Foreign Affairs of the Government-General, wrote Novem- 
ber 4, 1915: "It is the purpose of Japan to make them 
(the Koreans) not only good and intelligent but also loyal 
subjects of the Empire in name and reality." 

It is inevitable in such circumstances that the Japanese 
should be sensitive about any influences which they regard 
as in the slightest degree divisive or as coming between 
them and the people that they are trying to assimilate, and 
that they should feel that the carrying out of their policy, 
in the peculiar conditions that prevail, justifies close gov- 
ernmental control. 

There are two opinions among the Japanese as to the 
best method of attaining the desired end. The civil party 
believes that a humane and enhghtened policy is not only 
the best for the Koreans but the best for the Japanese, 
conciliating a people who have for centuries feared and 
distrusted the Japanese, and tending to bind them to their 
new rulers. The military party believes that the Koreans 
should be ruled with an iron hand, and so thoroughly cowed 



di}2 THE MASTERY OF THE FAIl EAST 

that they will never dare to assert themselves against the 
Japanese. The words ^^ civil" and "military" are not en- 
tirely accurate as descriptive terms. Some civilians ad- 
vocate the stern policy and some army officers the humane. 
But, broadly speaking, they serve to indicate the line of 
cleavage between the two parties. 

The mihtary party governed Korea immediately after 
the Russia-Japan War, and its inexorable methods, together 
with the brutality and greed of a swarm of Japanese adven- 
turers who came over to exploit the helpless country, were 
fast reducing the people to the desperation of despair. 
Civil government was then established by Prince Ito. 
Under his wise and statesmanlike administration, many 
needed reforms were inaugurated. Some of the indolent 
and slovenly Koreans resented the effort to arouse them 
from their lethargy, compel them to obey sanitary regula- 
tions, and to work as they had never worked before; but 
the Japanese were right, and the substantial benefits of 
their policy soon became so apparent that the better class 
of Koreans began to recognize them, and the coimtry ap- 
peared to be entering upon an era of peaceful prosperity. 
Prince Ito's successor. Viscount Sone, continued this wise 
policy. After an administration which was shortened by 
illness, he was succeeded in July, 1910, by Count Terauchi. 
I have had occasion to write more fully of him in another 
chapter. Suffice it here that he was a soldier by tempera- 
ment as well as by profession, an able executive, and was 
believed to hold just and moderate views and to be disposed 
to continue the enlightened policy of his predecessors. His 
personal attitude toward Christianity was not sympathetic, 
partly because his rehgious beliefs were in accord with the 
dominant systems in Japan, and partly because his ideas 
of Christianity had been formed during his stay in Paris. 
He supposed that France was a Christian nation, and when 
he saw the irreligion in political circles and the frivolity 
and dissipation in the social life of the capital, which were 
more conspicuous in the Paris of that day than they are 
now, and which did not represent the real character of the 



THE POLITICO-MISSIONARY COMPLICATION 563 

French people, he concluded that if these were consistent 
with Christianity, it was not to be admired as a religious 
faith. 

Nevertheless, he desired to be administratively just in 
his attitude toward all religions in Korea, Christianity in- 
cluded. Shortly after his arrival he issued a proclamation 
in which he said: "The freedom of religious belief is recog- 
nized in all civilized countries. . . . But those who en- 
gage in strife on account of sectarian differences, or take 
part in politics, or pursue political intrigues imder the 
name of religious propaganda, will injure good customs and 
manners and disturb public peace and order, and as such 
shall be dealt with by law. There is no doubt, however, 
that a good religion, be it Buddhism or Confucianism or 
Christianity, has as its aim the improvement, spiritual as 
well as material, of mankind at large; and in this not only 
does it not conflict with administration but really helps 
it in attaining the purpose it has in view." When a news- 
paper interviewer asked him his opinion of missionaries, he 
replied: "Freedom of religion will always be respected, 
and I am ready to extend due protection and facilities to 
the propagation of all religious doctrines, provided they do 
not interfere with politics. I am one of those who fully 
appreciate the good work of foreign missionaries, and as 
we have the same object in view as they, the improving of 
the general conditions of the people, their work will by no 
means be subject to any inconvenience. I need scarcely 
say that all vested rights of foreign residents will be fully 
respected." 

Two events, however, induced him to Hsten to the more 
extreme party, which was headed by General Akashi, the 
conmiander of the gendarmerie in Korea. The first was 
the assassination, in October, 1909, of Prince Ito, by a 
Korean fanatic who had once been connected with the 
Roman Catholic Church. This tragedy, following the 
shooting in San Francisco in March, 1908, of Mr. D. W. 
Stevens, the American diplomatic adviser of the Japanese 
in Seoul, by a Korean who claimed to be a Protestant, 



564 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

doubtless brought Count Terauchi to Korea with the feel- 
ing that he would have to deal with desperate men and with 
the suspicion that such men might be seeking to shelter 
themselves in the Christian Church. This suspicion was 
intensified by various minor acts and reports of Korean 
revolutionaries; which were less tragic but apparently no 
less significant. The second event was the growth of revo- 
lutionary sentiment in various parts of Asia, and particu- 
larly in China. Every throne felt its effects and the minds 
of some Koreans were stirred with new hope that they, too, 
might inaugurate a successful revolt, pathetic as such a 
hope seems to us. 

The Japanese party which favored stern treatment of the 
Koreans made the most of these events. They vehemently 
argued that the fate of Prince Ito showed the futility of a 
conciliatory policy and that if Japan did not want to have 
a revolution on its hands, it must adopt such sternly re- 
pressive measures that the Koreans would learn once for 
all that Japan would not brook opposition. Like men of 
the same type in other lands, these Japanese ^^ Jingoes'' 
luridly described the perils to which the nation was exposed 
and the necessity of giving the military secret service and 
the gendarmerie ample powers to meet them. When the 
Governor General made a journey, they surrounded him 
with pohce and gave him the impression that nothing but 
their vigilance saved his life. For example, when he was 
to pass through Syenchyim, December 28, 1910, the police 
ordered the students of the mission school, the Hugh O'Neill 
Jr. Industrial Academy, to be at the railway station in 
honor of his passage. Before the boys were permitted to 
enter the station enclosure, they were searched by the 
police and deprived of their pocket-knives. Two six-year- 
old tots, whose little legs had been unable to keep up with 
the procession and who arrived breathlessly a few minutes 
aftei-ward, were also searched in the same manner and their 
pencil-knives taken away. The Data for Prosecution, issued 
by the Japanese in the spring of 1912, as a '^statement of 
the facts connected with the indictment of the accused 



THE POLITICO-MISSIONARY COMPLICATION 565 

Koreans" in the ^'Korean Conspiracy Case/' included the 
following: 

"At Syenchyun, the conspirators proceeded on the 28th [Dec. 
1910] to the station again and ranged themselves on the platform 
with the Japanese and Koreans who came there to welcome the Gov- 
ernor General. The train arrived about noon, and every one of the 
would-be assassins watched intently for the opportunity, having 
ready his revolver or short sword under his long cloak. The Governor 
General descended from the train and saluting the welcomers passed 
within three or four steps of the conspirators. Owing, however, to 
the strict vigilance of the police officers and others, they could not 
accomplish their nefarious object." 

The Data for Prosecution described several other alleged 
attempts to assassinate the Governor-General at railway- 
stations, the accounts closing with substantially the same 
formula: '^The Governor-General passed closely by the 
would-be assassins, but the vigilance of the gendarmerie 
gave them no chance." It would occur to the average man 
that as railway-station premises in Korea are carefully en- 
closed and as no one was permitted to pass the gates, when 
the Governor-General came, without being searched, "the 
would-be assassms" could hardly have brought into the sta- 
tion "ready revolvers or short swords," except with the con- 
nivance of the pohce, and that if they did get inside with 
such arms and with the intention of kilhng the Governor- 
General, they had ample opportunity to do so at some one 
of the several times described by the police when "he passed 
closely by them." It is difficult to read this official docu- 
ment without getting the impression that the police who 
furnished the material were very desirous of having the 
Governor-General understand that nothing but their "vigi- 
lance" had kept him from being assassinated. It required 
either malice, or such a panic-stricken imagination as the 
Russian naval officers had when they fired on fishing-boats 
in the North Sea, to see dangerous assassins in trembling 
little boys whose very penknives had been taken away 
from them. 



500 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Evidences multiplied that this military party was in the 
saddle. Uniformed gendarmes swarmed throughout the 
country, particularly in the north. Secret poHce were 
ubiquitous. Spies attended every meeting of Koreans. 
All organizations were suspected of revolutionary designs. 
Perhaps some organizations had such designs. We do not 
know that they had; but every country in Asia is honey- 
combed with guilds and societies of various kinds, many of 
them more or less political. The Koreans would be lacking 
in the commonest elements of human nature if some of 
them might not have done what every subject people has 
done since the world began — take secret counsel as to how 
the yoke of the alien conqueror might be thrown off. 

From all political movements, however, the missionaries 
and the leading Korean Christians resolutely sought to 
keep the churches aloof. Obedience to ''the powers that 
be" was preached from every pulpit. The cliurch must 
have nothing to do with politics, the Christians were told. 
Some Christians who were suspected of activity in political 
movements were not permitted to hold office in the church, 
and in some cases were excommunicated. So strong was 
this determination of the missionaries and Korean church 
leaders that it was not uncommon for Koreans outside of 
the churches to taunt Christians with being on the side of 
the enemies of their country, and for the missionaries to 
be told that if it were not for them, a revolution would have 
been started long ago. During my last visit I was at pains 
to question the missionaries and leading Korean Christians 
regarding their attitude toward the Japanese. The con- 
ferences were in private homes, and those who were present 
had no motive for not talking frankly. Without exception 
they replied that loyal recognition was the duty of every 
Christian and in line with the teaching of Christ, who said : 
"Render unto Caesar the things which be Caesar's," and 
of Paul, who said: "Let every soul be subject unto the 
higher powers." One of the missionaries made the point 
that when a missionary opposes wrong he should not be 
understood as opposing the government. It is the duty of 



THE POLITICO-MISSIONARY COMPLICATION 567 

missionaries to oppose evil wherever it exists and under 
whatever auspices. When they protest against the opium 
traffic, they are simply doing what the Japanese Govern- 
ment is enforcing by law in Japan. When they denounce 
the establishment of brothels, they are combating vice, 
not the government. After going back and forth through 
Korea and getting the opinions of missionaries and Korean 
Christians from one end of the country to the other, I be- 
came satisfied that the missionaries were disposed to sup- 
port the government in every proper way. 

In spite of this policy, however, the churches did not 
escape hostile espionage and they soon began to feel the 
unpleasant effects. For more than two years reports from 
various parts of the country described growing suspicion 
and harshness by Japanese local gendarmes toward the 
"helpless Korean Christians. The correspondence indicated 
that something more was involved in the course of the gen- 
darmerie than could be accounted for by the assumption 
that, wholly unknown to the missionaries, there was a plot 
against the government of which certain Korean Chris- 
tians were cognizant and in which some may have par- 
ticipated. 

When the Japanese were charged with persecuting Chris- 
tianity, they replied that the liberty which Christianity 
enjoyed in Japan proved that they were not persecuting it 
in Korea. We beheve this to be true. A distinction, how- 
ever, must be observed between the Japanese conception 
of Christianity and the Japanese conception of the church 
as an organization. In Japan, there is no hostility to the 
church because it is composed of Japanese, some of them of 
high rank, and it is controlled by them. The missionaries 
co-operate with the church, but they have little or no voice 
in its management. In Korea the church is more than 
t\\dce as large as the church in Japan and, in proportion to 
the population, many times larger, and it is of course com- 
posed of Koreans. The Japanese desire to control every- 
thing within their dominions, as foreign business men have 
learned to their cost. This is particularly true in Korea, 



568 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

where they deem it necessaiy to their plans to be absolute 
masters. 

Now the Japanese saw in the Korean churches numerous 
and powerful organizations of their subjects which they 
did not control. They observed the devotion of the people 
to the church, a devotion almost unparalleled elsewhere. 
The life of the Korean was singularly empty and forlorn be- 
fore Christianity came to him. \Vhen he heard the gospel 
preached, he eagerly accepted it and found in its services 
inspirations and companionships that he had never before 
known. He could say with Paul : ^' For me to Hve is Christ." 
When he had a dispute with his brother Christian, he re- 
membered the New Testament question: "Dare any of 
you having a matter against his neighbor go to law before 
the unrighteous and not before the saints?" So he takes 
his case, not to the Japanese policeman or magistrate, but 
to his pastor or the missionary. This leaves the Japanese 
official Avith little to do and forces him to see the life of the 
people, whom he is supposed to govern, go on without him. 
A Japanese town of 8,000 inhabitants probably has 100 or 
200 Christians. The church edifice is a comparatively 
small building and the congregations are largely outnum- 
bered by Buddhist or secular gatherings. But of the 8,000 
inhabitants of the Korean town of Syenchyun, where the 
trouble first became acute, about half are Christians, while 
the adjacent villages are also largely Christian. The church 
and the mission school are the largest and most conspicuous 
buildings in the place. There are no Buddhist temples and 
no secular attractions which can draw more than a few 
score persons. Congregations of Christians, however, throng 
the church with 1,200 or 1,500 Koreans several times on 
Simdays, and the mid-week prayer meetings are attended 
by from 700 to 1,000. Similar conditions prevail in many 
other towns and villages. Presbyterians alone reported at 
that time 60,736 Christians, including enrolled adherents, 
in Syenchyim and Pyengyang (Japanese Heijo) and their 
tributary villages. As the Japanese police noted the multi- 
tudes of Christians flocking to the churches, they irritably 



THE POLITICO-MISSIONARY COMPLICATION 569 

wondered why these Christians met so often and what they 
were doing. Spies were sent to find out. Imperious as 
Russian poHce in hunting pohtical agitators among students, 
eager to obtain the rewards which were beheved to be be- 
stowed upon the poHce who were most successful in ferreting 
out treason, and imfamiHar with Christian terminology, 
their suspicions were aroused as they heard the great con- 
gregations sing with fervor such hymns as: 

"Onward, Christian Soldiers, 
Marching as to war I" 

"Stand up, stand up for Jesus, 
Ye soldiers of the Cross!" 

and then listen to a stirring sermon which perhaps personi- 
fied the forces of evil in the heart, as Paul did, and summoned 
the believer to cast them out. One of the missionaries, 
Mr. George S. McCime, of Syenchyun, in one of his daily 
Bible talks to his students in the Hugh O'Neill Jr. Academy, 
expounded the narrative of David and Goliath, emphasizing 
the conventional lesson that the weak man whose cause is 
just and whose heart is pure can overcome the strongest. 
This was promptly reported to the authorities as treasona- 
ble, since Mr. McCune must have intended to teach that 
David symbolized the weak Korean and Goliath the strong 
Japanese. One pastor was arrested because he preached 
about the Kingdom of Heaven; he was told that there was 
"only one kingdom out here and that is the kingdom of 
Japan." The Christian Church opposes immorality, the 
morphine habit, and cigarette smoking, especially by the 
women and children, and this aroused the anger of certain 
Japanese who have done not a little to encourage these 
vices in Korea. Pastor Kil of Pyengyang advised the par- 
ents of his congregation not to allow their children to smoke 
cigarettes or to work in the recently estabhshed cigarette 
factory. Shortly afterward, he was warned by the police 
that, as the manufacture of tobacco was a government 
monopoly, his advice was treasonable and must not be re- 



570 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

peated. Thus the poHce placed wrong constructions upon 
what they saw and heard, and imagined in a vague but 
bitter way that it was inimical to the interests of Japan to 
have such a large organization of Koreans that was not 
amenable to their control. 

The suspicions of the Japanese were probably strengthened 
by the widely published statements regarding the promi- 
nence of Christians in the revolutionary movement in China. 
Every American and European knows that while Christi- 
anity awakens the minds of men, makes them impatient 
of injustice and arouses them to demand an honest and en- 
lightened government; there is absolutely nothing in the 
teaching of Christ to lead Christians to conspire against a 
government, unless it is an evil and oppressive one. Japa- 
nese Christians are famous for their loyalty to their Em- 
peror, and British Christians are more devoted to their 
King than American Christians are to their President. If 
a government is just, Christianity is absolutely indifferent 
as to whether it is monarchical or republican. Indeed, the 
majority of Christians throughout the world hve content- 
edly under monarchies. Christians in China opposed the 
Manchu Dynasty, not because it had an Emperor, but be- 
cause it was hopelessly reactionary and corrupt. As a 
matter of fact, the revolutionary spirit was strongest among 
the Chinese who were educated in Japan. But the Japa- 
nese police in Korea got it into their heads that the great 
organization of the Korean church was a hotbed of revo- 
lutionary opportunity, and they jealously watched it. 

The so-called "MilHon Evangehstic Campaign" in 1910 
and 1911 intensified these suspicions. It was a concerted 
effort of the churches to seek the conversion of a million 
souls. But the Japanese misimderstood it, or feared that 
such an enormous reinforcement would make the leaders 
of the church overshadow the ci\dl authorities still more. 
The police accordingly redoubled their activities. Gen- 
darmes in uniform and spies in citizens^ dress attended the 
special services. Pastors were required to report the 
names of converts at police headquarters. A gendarme 



THE POLITICO-MISSIONARY COMPLICATION 571 

enteued a private house, drew his sword and threateningly 
asked why the owner had joined "the Jesus Church," the 
night before. Shopkeepers who became Christians were 
visited by the poHce and remonstrated with for closing their 
places of business on Sunday. In one large country church, 
a Japanese official walked into the pulpit at a Sunday ser- 
vice and denounced Christianity to the congregation. 
Probably one reason for the activity of the police was the 
desire to find out whether the Christians of Korea were in- 
clined to imitate the example of their brethren in China 
and whether Baron Yun Chi Ho was ambitious of becoming 
a Korean Sun Yat Sen. 

The strain was intensified by the educational situation, 
which I have described in a separate chapter. The Japa- 
nese attach great importance to their public school system 
and to the necessity of managing it as a department of the 
government. When a policeman called on a Korean par- 
ent and sharply asked him why he did not send his children 
to the public school instead of to the church school, the 
timid Korean was apt to conclude that he was in danger of 
punishment if he did not heed what he regarded as a man- 
date; and when so many of the teachers and pupils of the 
mission schools were among those who were arrested, the 
conclusion appeared to be justified. The whole extensive 
system of church primary schools in Korea was in jeop- 
ardy under the combined exactions of Japanese regula- 
tions and the course of the local police in intimidating 
parents. 

In the fall of 1911, police suspicion culminated in the 
so-called "Korean Conspiracy Case." Christians in vari- 
ous places were arrested imtil hundreds were in jail. So 
many teachers and students of the Presbyterian Academy 
at Syenchyim were taken that it had to be closed. Pastors, 
elders, deacons, and other leading church members were 
also seized and sent handcuffed to the capital. The police 
refused to make any explanations either to the arrested men 
or to their frightened families. Many of the men and 
boys were kept in jail for months without proper food or 



572 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

clothing for the cold weather, without knowing the charges 
against them, and without being permitted to confer with 
counsel. Finally some were released, and the remainder 
were brought to trial, June 28, 1912, in the District Court 
in Seoul, on a charge of conspiracy to murder Governor 
General Terauchi, to which it was said they had confessed. 
The testimony was not fairly interpreted to the judges, 
who did not understand the Korean language; counsel for 
the defense were not permitted to produce witnesses who 
could have testified to alibis, and the '^ confessions" turned 
out to have been obtained in secret examinations under 
police torture, and were repudiated in open court by the 
men who were alleged to have made them. The trial was a 
travesty of justice. But the powerful gendarmerie had 
committed themselves too deeply to accept the humiliation 
of defeat, and on their insistence the complaisant judges, 
September 28, sentenced 105 of the accused men to terms 
of imprisonment ranging from five to ten years. All of the 
condemned men were of high character, one of them being 
Baron Yun Chi Ho, a former member of the Korean Cab- 
inet, president of the Southern Methodist College at 
Songdo, vice-president of the Korea Y. M. C. A., and widely 
known for integrity as well as ability. The case was car- 
ried to the Court of Appeals, which gave a new trial begin- 
ning November 26, 1912, and which resulted, March 21, 
1913, in the acquittal of all the defendants except six. The 
latter were sentenced to six years^ imprisonment. Baron 
Yun Chi Ho among them. After further appeals, the 
Supreme Court at Seoul, October 9, 1913, ruled that the 
proceedings in the Court of Appeals had been ^^ regular," 
and, without passing on the merits of the case, sustained 
the verdict. By this time many Japanese, as well as prac- 
tically all foreign observers, realized that the '^conspiracy" 
had been manufactured out of the imaginations of hostile 
and overzealous poHce, and beheved that the government 
would take advantage of the first convenient opportunity 
for liberating the men whom everybody now believed to be 
innocent. This opportunity came in connection with the 



THE POLITICO-MISSIONARY COMPLICATION 573 

coronation of the Emperor in February, 1915, at which time 
all the accused men were released as a mark of ^ imperial 
clemency." 

The collapse of the ''Conspiracy Case'' cleared the air 
considerably. It taught the Japanese that the mission- 
aries were not hostile to Japanese rule, and it emphasized 
to the missionaries the necessity for special care in their 
dealings with officials and people in matters which affect 
the government, The resultant improvement in relation- 
ships has been marked. Nevertheless, a certain uneasiness 
continues to exist. The Japanese see that in this country, 
for whose people they feel that they should be the special 
guides and counsellors, there are over 400 foreign mission- 
aries, many of them resident in Korea before the Japanese 
annexed it, compactly organized into missions, strong in 
the principal cities of the country, and having great influ- 
ence with hundreds of thousands of Koreans. Whatever 
may be the attitude of the lower police officials and the 
venders of morphine and panders of vice, intelhgent Japa- 
nese thoroughly respect the missionaries. They know them 
to be Christian gentlemen who are devoting their fives to 
unselfish labor for the Korean people. Many Japanese 
would agree with the traveller who wrote from Korea: 
''Here has been wrought one of the greatest Christian ac- 
complishments in the world's history. The lives of the 
Americans who have accomplished this great work are an 
open book. I hold no brief for the missionary. But I 
have seen much of the work being done here and I know 
the men who are doing it. Picture to yourself the saintliest 
man of your acquaintance — the man whose character is so 
far above reproach that no man has ever questioned it even 
in his own mind; the man who, filled with the spirit of 
Christianity, lives his religion every day of his life; the man 
who asks nothing else but opportunity to devote ah his 
talents and all his energies to unselfish labor in his Master's 
service. Think of that man, and you have the American 
missionary in Korea as I know him to be." The Japan 
Advertiser editorially referred to this opinion and added: 



574 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

''We do not believe these statements will be gainsaid by 
unprejudiced critics." 

Just because of this character, the Korean Christians 
look up to the missionaries with an affection and respect 
bordering upon veneration. When they were ignorant, 
depressed, and superstitious, the missionaries brought them 
knowledge and hope, liberated them from the fear of 
demons, ministered to their sick in hospitals, taught their 
children in schools, visited the poor, comforted the dying, 
and preached to all the people ''good tidings of great joy.'* 
The simple-hearted Koreans, temperamentally affectionate 
and responsive to a high degree, gladly responded to the 
message and gave to the men and women who brought it 
an unstinted measure of devotion. The missionaries are 
the great men in Korea. Their influence is moral rather 
than authoritative, for the Korean churches are not sub- 
ject to the missions, and the latter are doing all they can 
to induce the churches to assume the management of their 
own religious activities. But to Japanese observers the 
ascendancy of the missionary body appears large. Every 
government in the world is insistent upon the recognition of 
its authority in its own domain, especially in annexed or 
colonial territory. We know how particular the British 
are about this in India, the French in Madagascar, and the 
Americans in the Philippines. The Japanese are a high- 
spirited people, legitimately sensitive about their national 
prerogatives and resentful of anything that looks like an 
infringement upon them. 

As a matter of fact, the missionaries, in so far as they 
have touched poHtical matters at all, have used their great 
influence to induce the Koreans to acquiesce in Japanese 
rule. Indeed it has often been said that if it had not been 
for the missionaries, a revolution would have broken out 
when Korea was annexed to Japan. The Japanese fully 
appreciate this; but they are restive imder a situation in 
which foreigners apparently have power to make or un- 
make a revolution among their own subjects. Japanese 
national pride demands Japanese supremacy within Japa- 



THE POLITICO-MISSIONARY COMPLICATION 575 

nese territory. A Japanese official who sees himself over- 
shadowed by an American missionaiy is more or less un- 
consciously jealous and is apt to feel that such pre-eminence 
is prejudicial to the interests of Japan^ and that in some 
way it must be broken. It is clear that the missionaries 
are not to be blamed for this situation. On the contrary, 
it is a high tribute to their worth. Surely they should not 
be censured for being men of such purity of character, kind- 
ness of heart, and unselfishness of conduct that the people 
trust them. We cannot tell them to act so badly that they 
will forfeit the respect of the Korean Christians. But it is 
equally clear that the missionaries and their boards must 
consider the view-point of the Japanese and do what they 
can to meet it. 

We do not insist that all of the several hundred American 
missionaries have been wholly without fault. In the midst 
of a frightened and helpless people, seeing what they be- 
lieved to be injustice and cruelty, anxious for the churches 
and schools which represent the toils of many years, they 
could not be reasonably expected to act as if they were deaf 
and dumb. Let it be conceded that some of them have 
contributed heat as well as light to the question under con- 
sideration. Their position was one of exceeding difficulty. 
They strongly sympathized with Japan during the war 
with Russia. ^Tien, however, Japan at the close of the 
war began the actual work of reorganizing the country, the 
missionaries could not be blind to the numerous acts of 
injustice that were committed. They saw that many of 
the Japanese in Korea were not the best representatives of 
the spirit and purpose that Japan had shown in the war 
and that she professed to be desirous of maintaining before 
the world. They saw the property of the Koreans taken 
without due compensation, and that it did not help the 
poor people in the least to be told that the compensation 
had been paid to corrupt officials, who had pocketed it. 
The missionaries, living in various parts of the coimtry, 
intimately acquainted with the Koreans and in close con- 
tact with them, regarded by them as their best friends and 



576 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

natural protectors, were in a position to see better than 
any one else in the world the wrongs and hardships of the 
people under their care. And yet the missionaries were 
friends not only of the Koreans but of the Japanese. 

In these circumstances, it was and it is now exceedingly 
difficult for the missionaries to hold a mediate position. 
When the Korean Christians appealed to them for help, it 
was natural that they should speak in their behalf to the 
Japanese; and when the Japanese, as was sometimes the 
case, declined under various pretexts to give the desired 
relief, or failed to do so, the missionaries were as naturally 
troubled. Their situation is still one of great delicacy. A 
close observer remarked only a few months ago that multi- 
tudes of the Koreans are not reconciled to Japanese rule; 
that they simply acquiesce in it as they know that they are 
helpless; and that they are hoping and waiting for some 
other nation to come in and release them. If the mission- 
aries show sympathy with the Koreans, they arouse the 
resentment of the Japanese; and if they show sympathy 
with the Japanese, they arouse the resentment of the Ko- 
reans and lose their influence with them. It is a case of 
walking a tight rope between the devil and the deep sea. 
The armchair critic ten thousand miles away may well 
consider whether he would or could have walked as straight 
as the missionaries did. They have borne themselves with 
remarkable moderation, dignity, and self-restraint. They 
may need to be cautioned and advised by men to whom 
distance can give greater calmness of judgment; but such 
caution and advice they have not only shown themselves 
willing to receive, but they have earnestly sought them. 

It is not true, as some Japanese newspapers have alleged, 
that the missionaries are anti-Japanese. Prince Ito was 
well satisfied with their attitude during his administration. 
He personally told me so when we discussed the question 
together during my second visit. When a Korean official, 
Sung Pyong-chun, Minister for Home Affairs in the Korean 
Government, was reported by a Tokyo paper as having 
charged that Korean Christians '^are united in the common 



THE POLITICO-MISSIONARY COMPLICATION 577 

object of opposing the present administration and that 
they are backed by a group of American missionaries/' the 
missionaries in Seoul communicated with Mr. Sung, who 
denied that he had made the statement attributed to him; 
and the Honorable Thomas J. O'Brien, then American Am- 
bassador to Japan, addressed a communication to Prince 
Ito, asking him to state whether he had any reason to be- 
lieve that the statements attributed to Mr. Sung were 
correct. The following is an extract from Prince Ito's 
reply: ^'I met a number of missionaries at Pyengyang, 
where many of them reside, and had an opportunity to as- 
certain that they not only take no steps whatever in oppo- 
sition to the administration of the Korean Government, 
but that they are in sympathy with the new regime in- 
augurated after the estabhshment of the Residency-General 
and are endeavoring to interpret to the Korean people the 
true purpose of that regime. I am personally acquainted 
with many American missionaries stationed at Seoul, with 
whose conduct and views I am fully familiar. The fact 
that they are in sympathy with the new regime in Korea, 
and that, in co-operation with the Residency-General, they 
are endeavoring to enlighten the Korean people, does not, 
I trust, require any special confirmation." 

If the critics of missionaries believe that this situation 
was altered for the worse under subsequent administrations, 
they might discreetly ask themselves why American, Eng- 
lish, Canadian, and Australian missionaries, who had re- 
ceived such high indorsement from Prince Ito, were led to 
change their attitude. The Japanese editor of the Fukuin 
Shimpo, of Tokyo, while suggesting that 'Hhe foreign mis- 
sionaries in Korea seem to be moved by various baseless 
imaginations resulting from a misunderstanding of the 
facts," candidly added: "Nevertheless, there is probably 
material for reflection and improvement in the causes and 
conditions which have stirred their minds to such a degree, 
and a prompt investigation would benefit the nation." 

However just may have been the intentions of the 
Japanese Government, the administration in Korea was 



578 THE MASTERY OF THE FAll EAST 

plainly interpreting its problem in terms of the supposed 
military necessities of the Empire in occupying an exposed 
frontier. Whatever defense may be made of this as a 
political measure, it opened a nervous prospect to the 
helpless people who were thus subordinated to a war policy, 
and to the missionaries whose influence was considered an 
obstruction to the military purposes for which the country 
was held. A large number of Japanese keenly felt the un- 
fortunate position into which the peremptory course of the 
gendarmerie had brought their country. They advocated a 
more humane policy and the wisdom as well as the hmnan- 
ity of fair and conciliatory treatment of the Koreans. They 
did not resent the friendly interest of Western peoples in 
their problems and in the effect of a militaristic policy upon 
milHons of people in whose welfare British and American 
Christians have been deeply interested for more than a 
quarter of a century, for whom they have undertaken ex- 
tensive educational, evangelistic, and medical missionary 
work which the Japanese themselves have long welcomed 
and warmly commended in their own coimtry, and which 
many Japanese have expressly approved and encouraged 
in Korea. 

The question of Sunday observance has also caused em- 
barrassment. Nowhere else in the world is the day more 
scrupulously kept by Christian people. With such strict 
ideas regarding its sanctity, one can imagine the dismay 
when Koreans, Christians included, are called upon by the 
government to work on Sunday, not on account of any 
extraordinary emergency of war or fire or epidemic, but in 
ordinary public tasks. The Japanese attitude is indicated 
by the following extracts from the reply of a prominent 
government official to complaints on tWs subject: "I have 
recently been told that not a few Korean Christians are dis- 
satisfied with the authorities, because they are often re- 
quired to contribute labor on Simdays, and schools also 
not infrequently make excursions on Sundays. I have 
also been told that certain teachers of private schools re- 
fused to attend the examination for private school teachers 



THE POLITICO-MISSIONARY COMPLICATION 579 

because it was held on a Sunday, with the result that they 
lost the opportunity to take the examination. I am very 
sorry that those persons fall so short of a right understand- 
ing of conditions in Japan. Japan does not make Chris- 
tianity her national religion. It is no wonder then that 
things in Japan, whether pohtical, educational, or social, 
are not necessarily in conformity with the customs of West- 
ern Christian coimtries. It is true, Sunday is observed as 
a holiday by government offices and schools, but the ob- 
servance has no religious basis in it, the day being fixed 
simply as the day on which offices or schools are to be 
closed. In the same sense, banks and companies also 
observe Sunday as a day of rest. Under the circumstances, 
the government, as well as schools, is quite at liberty to 
make any use of Simday, if the authorities consider it 
necessary to do so." ^ 

This explanation will doubtless be considered quite satis- 
factory by those who hold the Prussian idea of the state — 
that the state is above moral obhgation; that whatever it 
does is right; that the individual subject must render it 
implicit obedience irrespective of the moral quality of its 
acts; that one can be a Christian as a private person and at 
the same time a pagan as a citizen; and that rehgion has 
nothing to do with pohtics or business. The missionaries, 
of course, reahze that they cannot expect the Japanese 
Government to enforce their ideas of Sabbath observance; 
but they are unable to show the Korean Christians how a 
man can divide his life into such separate water-tight com- 
partments that he can be both Christian and non-Christian 
at the same time, and consistently conform to each of two 
confficting standards of duty. Of course difficulties of 
this sort are to be expected in a land where the prevailing 
religious beliefs differ from ours, and missionaries and 
native Christians must meet them as best they can. For- 
tunately, there is now a growing disposition on the part of 
many officials to be as considerate as possible in deahng 

» Published by the Seoul Press, June 22, 1916. 



580 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

with the conscientious convictions of the Korean Christians 
when the latter exercise tact in presenting their case. 

Ordinance No. 83 ^^prescribing rules for the conduct of 
religious propagation/' promulgated August 19, 1915, and 
which went into effect the 1st of October following, does 
not in itself hamper Christian workers, but it exposes them 
to the misunderstanding or caprice of any official who is 
inclined to be exacting or suspicious. The missionaries at 
first were greatly concerned, and the Federal Council of the 
missions in Korea, at its annual meeting in October, 1915, 
appointed a committee to confer with Mr. Usami, Director 
of the Bureau of Internal Affairs and of Religion. He re- 
ceived the committee very cordially, and the Council, on 
hearing its report, voted to "record our pleasure that our 
apprehensions have been allayed." An amendment to 
substitute the word "removed" for "allayed" was voted 
down. The rules are numerous, and a good deal of time 
is required to carry them into effect and to make all the 
detailed reports that they call for. No special harm has 
resulted, but Christian workers, both native and foreign, 
understand that the path of governmental favor, like the 
path of eternal life, is straight and narrow. 

A comparatively minor question, and yet one involving 
many perplexities, arises from the fact that the missionary 
boards operating in Korea own many pieces of church prop- 
erty, the titles to which, in most cases, were secured years 
ago when Korea was in a chaotic condition. The titles were 
obtained under Korean customs and laws, and do not ac- 
cord with the requirements of Japanese laws. Deeds issued 
prior to the annexation are not recognized as valid by the 
Government-General but must be presented to a Japanese 
official with proofs of ownership, when a new deed will be 
given. These proofs are not always easy to produce, as a 
given tract may have been made up of half a dozen or 
more small pieces that were bought from as many different 
Koreans, as some of the original owners may not be living, 
and as the papers that they gave may have been of a kind 
that a careful Japanese official does not find satisfactory 



THE POLITICO-MISSIONARY COMPLICATION 581 

from the view-point of present-day legal procedure. In the 
case of the campus of a large school, more than six years of 
effort on the part of the missionaries did not succeed in 
securing a new deed from the Japanese Government. In- 
terested parties might make no small trouble if these prop- 
erty rights w^ere to be challenged under the strict provisions 
of Japanese statutes. The properties v/ere acquired in 
good faith, were obtained from the original owners by fair 
purchase, and whatever defects there are in the titles were 
not the fault of the missionaries but were due to existing 
conditions at the time. The missionaries have worked hard 
to tiy to get these titles into satisfactory^ shape, and have 
measurably succeeded in some stations, but in others many 
properties are still in an unsatisfactory condition. 

It is an awkward and embarrassing fact that negotiations 
with the authorities regarding Korean religious matters 
have to be conducted by foreigners. Whenever a question 
affecting Christian work develops in Japan, there are able 
Japanese Christians who can handle it directly with their 
own government. The time will come when this course 
can be taken in Korea; but, unfortunately, it cannot be 
taken yet. Korea and Japan differ as widely in religious 
conditions as Mr. Komatsu states that they differ in educa- 
tional conditions; and just as he has said that ^Hhe opinion 
that the same educational policy as pursued in Japan should 
be applied to Korea emanates from an erroneous concep- 
tion of conditions existing in the two different parts of the 
country," so we may say in respect of the present question 
that a method of procedure which can be adopted in Japan 
cannot now be adopted in Korea. The missionary represen- 
tatives have no alternative, therefore, but to confer with 
the authorities themselves in spite of the delicacies that 
inhere in the fact that they are citizens of other countries. 
Americans are at a special disadvantage, since the Japanese 
ImperialGovernment can point to objectionable discrimina- 
tion against its subjects in California. These considera- 
tions render it all the more vital that we should show the 
most scrupulous regard for the dignity of the Government- 



582 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

General, and make perfectly evident that we have no desire 
whatever to intei-vene between it and its own subjects. 
On the other hand, high Japanese officials, by conferring 
with missionaries and representatives of mission boards, 
frankly recognize that, in the peculiar circumstances that 
prevail, the missions and boards have a legitimate status 
as one of the factors in the pending problem. 

Not to dwell further on these phases of the question, let 
us ask: \Vhat can be done to promote satisfactory rela- 
tions between the missionaiies and the Japanese in Korea? 
The boards frankly recognize that there are some things 
which they and the missionaries can do, or rather con- 
tinue to do: cultivate friendly relations with Japanese 
officials who are willing to be on such terms with 
them; scrupulously respect and obey, and teach the 
Korean Christians to respect and obey, the lawfully con- 
stituted authorities; limit their activities to missionary 
duties and keep themselves and, as far as possible, the 
Korean churches wholly apart from all political matters; 
take any necessary complaints directly to the Japanese 
and not to the consular or diplomatic representatives of their 
respective governments — save when their treaty rights as 
American or British citizens have been violated, and even 
then not unless the violation was very serious; refuse to shield 
any Koreans who, although calling themselves Christians, 
are justly accused of crime; recognize the Japanese nation 
as the absolute legal master of Korea, which, on the whole, 
means well and which should be helped and not hindered 
in all its legitimate policies and methods; and, finally, en- 
courage such relations between Korean and Japanese 
Christians as will tend to unite the two peoples in bonds 
of amity. 

Japan's purpose to assimilate Korea in population and 
sentiment as well as in territory lies beyond missionary 
control. It is a settled national policy, and mission workers 
should accommodate themselves to it and scrupulously 
avoid acts and utterances that are incompatible with it. 
In short, they should bear in mind that the Japanese are 



THE POLITICO-MISSIONARY COMPLICATION 583 

tiying to amalgamate Korea and Japan and that they 
will resent any foreign influence which separates religiously 
and educationally peoples whom they are determined to 
imify politically. Korea is the broad highway from Japan 
to Manchuria, to China, to Russian territory, to the inter- 
national opportunities that Japan covets and the interna- 
tional dangers that she fears. Influence with the new 
Chinese Republic is the ambition of all the world-powers. 
With most of them active in China, the Japanese naturally 
feel that an unobstructed Korea is an absolute necessity of 
their national'life and that they cannot permit any anti- 
Japanese element in it, or look with unconcern upon any 
organization, however neutral, which is not amenable to 
their control. Whether we like this or not, the fact must 
be squarely faced. We are not dealing with peoples who, 
like Englishmen and Americans, are good-naturedly willing 
to allow their subjects to do almost anything they please 
short of open revolt; but we are dealing with Asiatics to 
whom freedom of speech, the rights of man, the privilege 
of peaceable assemblage, and the separation of church and 
state are comparatively new conceptions, and who will 
not condone in Korea what Americans indifferently over- 
look in the Philippines. Acts that look to us like deliberate 
hostility to Christianity may not be so intended. We 
must recur again and again to the interpretative fact that 
Japan is not a democracy but a paternal autocracy, which 
regulates the lives of its subjects, which wants to know what 
they do and say, and which brings every activity under 
careful scmtiny and precise regulations. Missions and 
churches are watched and regulated just as everything else 
is. We should not, therefore, infer enmity from acts which 
appear arbitrary from the view-point of a Western democ- 
racy which gives itself no concern whatever about the activi- 
ties of rehgious and educational organizations so long as 
they keep within the broadest general limits of law and 
order. 

We frankly admit that there are deeply rooted difficul- 
ties in the whole situation. Conquerors and conquered 



584 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

have seldom mingled as equals anywhere in the world, and 
then only after the lapse of many generations. In the 
Philippine Islands, a wide social chasm has opened between 
Americans and Filipinos, and missionaries are fast becom- 
ing the only class which associates with the people on terms 
of equality. Japanese and Koreans are separated by deep 
racial, linguistic, hereditary, and temperamental differences, 
and by social prejudices as stubborn as those which divided 
Jews and Samaritans of old. Now that the Koreans are 
beginning to adopt Japanese dress, the physical difference 
between the two peoples is becoming less marked, and of 
late years intermarriages have become more common. An 
eminent Japanese has expressed the opinion that inter- 
marriage will eventually solve this problem. But at pres- 
ent, while many Japanese are kind to the Koreans, as the 
best Japanese are, it is apt to be with the type of kindness 
which characterizes a Georgia gentleman toward a negro. 
The Georgian may be a friend and benefactor of the negro, 
but he does not consider himself on the latter 's level. The 
Korean resents this attitude even more than the negro does, 
for his ancestry is not one of slaver}^ and African barbarism 
but of the traditions of a proud and ancient nation. He 
feels that Korea is the land of his fathers and that the 
Japanese are aliens who have no right there except on the 
low plane of physical force. Is unity of feeling to be reason- 
ably expected in such circumstances? It is notorious that 
the white man the world over deems himself superior to 
men of other races, and that even missionaries have not 
always succeeded in preventing the development of social 
cleavage between their own families and, native Christians. 
We should therefore be slow to criticise the Japanese for an 
attitude which we also have to struggle to overcome. 

There is also something that the Japanese can do: seek 
a better knowledge of what the missionaries and churches 
really are and are doing; study the beneficial changes that 
Christianity has wrought in the lives of the people; realize 
that good men who try to conform their lives to the teach- 
ings of Christ are never a hindrance to the state but are an 



THE POLITICO-MISSIONARY CO:vIPLICATION 585 

asset of enormous value; consider that a missionary's criti- 
cism of injustice on the part of some Jaj:.ari.e3e is not to be 
construed as antagonism to Japan as a nation or a reflec- 
tion upon its honor; and cease to deal with the Korean 
Chiistians through the kind of gendarm.es and judges who 
brought about ^^The Korean Conspiracy Case" and per- 
verted the wise policy of Prince Ito and the good inten- 
tions of the Japanese people into a policy of espionage and 
intimidation. The situation in Korea undoubtedly requires 
a firm government; but the firmness should be that of 
modern statesmanship and not that of a feudalism which 
would reproduce in Korea conditions which the Japanese 
aboHshed in Japan more than a generation ago. Ameri- 
canS; who remember with shame how their own local 
officials once treated the Indians and the conquered Southern 
people after the Civil War in the United States, may humbly 
hope that the Japanese will learn from our bitter experience 
that the soldier^s rifle and the policeman's club do not make 
loyal citizens of a defeated people. 



CHAPTER XXXV 
JAPANESE NATIONALISM AND MISSION SCHOOLS 

The considerations described in the chapter on ^'The 
Politico-Missionary CompHcation in Korea ^' have found 
another and more serious illustration in the restrictions 
which the Japanese Government has imposed upon mission 
schools. The resultant situation has aroused such wide- 
spread interest in the educational as well as the missionary 
world, and it throws so much light on political conditions 
that it merits careful study. 

In carrying out their policy of assimilating Korea with 
Japan, the Japanese did not fail to perceive the difficulty 
of changing the attitude of mature men who have been 
moulded by the traditions of their own race, and who have 
personal memories of the tumults and sorrows that attended 
the subjugation of their native land. But if the children 
could be trained to the altered conditions, a single genera- 
tion would see the desired change in sentiment. The Japa- 
nese therefore turned their attention to the schools. Doctor 
Tan Shidehara, who had been educational adviser to the 
Korean Government, was instructed to study the educa- 
tional systems of America and Europe and to report upon 
their adaptation to dependent peoples. The Imperial Edu- 
cation Society of Japan announced that the purpose of the 
government was to extend to the people of Korea the prin- 
ciples of national education, as set forth in the Imperial 
Rescript of 1890, in such a manner as to make the Koreans 
miderstand that the union of the two countries came about 
inevitably as a consequence both of their historic associa- 
tion and of their geographical position; to inspire in them 
the hope of playing a noble part as Japanese subjects on the 
present and future stage of world-civilization; to bring 

586 



NATIONALISM AND MISSION SCHOOLS 587 

them to an intelligent comprehension of the need, under 
existing conditions, of the general use of the Japanese lan- 
guage; and to create a new bureau under the direct control 
of the Governor-General to undertake the important work 
of compiling special text-books for Korean schools. This 
programme was energetically undertaken. Free public 
schools were opened under Japanese teachers and Korean 
parents were urged to send their children to them. 

The Japanese soon discovered, however, that their schools 
were not popular with the Koreans. This was partty be- 
cause parents hesitated to put their children under ahen 
conquerors whose purpose was to wean them away from 
their national ideas, customs, and language, and turn them 
into Japanese; partly because most parents who coveted a 
modern education for their sons and daughters were already 
sending them to the mission schools, where they were edu- 
cated in their own language as Koreans; and partly because 
many parents were Christians who wanted their children 
trained under strong religious influence. Indeed, nearly all 
the elementary village schools were church schools, directly 
connected with and supported by the local congregations. 
The school usually occupies a church building and is an 
integral part of church activities. Pupils who complete the 
course of these elementary schools go to the mission acad- 
emies and boarding-schools at the central stations, from 
which in due time they can go to a mission college, so that 
their entire training is under religious auspices. Most 
serious of all, from the view-point of the Japanese, is the 
fact that this whole educational system is either directly 
controlled, as in the case of the academies and boarding- 
schools, or indirectly influenced, as in the case of the ele- 
mentary chm'ch schools, by foreigners — American mission- 
aries. 

At this point another factor must be taken into account. 
The Japanese regard education as a function of the state; 
not in the sense of Great Britain and the United States, 
which deem it their duty to provide free education for those 
who need or desire it^ but in the sense that the state must 



588 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

absolutely control the education of its people in order to 
train them for the ends of the state. Schools are regarded 
as agencies of the state like the courts and the army. It 
is intolerable from the Japanese view-point that subjects of 
the Empire should be educated in private institutions over 
which the government has no control and in which they 
may be taught anything that the teachers please, especially 
when, as in Korea, these teachers are foreigners who owe 
allegiance to another government and who are suspected 
of lack of sympathy with the authorities of the country. 
The government position appears to be: It is the duty of 
the church to preach and the duty of the state to teach. 
Missionaries may have unlimited freedom in evangeliza- 
tion, but they should leave education to the government. 
If they insist upon having schools, they must make them 
conform to the government schools in curriculum, in quali- 
fications of teachers, and in the exclusion of religion; for 
the schools of the state must be secular with no religious 
exercises, whether Buddhist or Christian. 

Mission schools in Japan proper had some trouble for a 
time over the outworking of this fundamental principle. 
Graduates of the government schools have certain highly 
prized privileges, such as exemption from conscription in 
the army, admission to the Imperial University and the 
government technical and professional schools, and eligi- 
bility to many civil, military, and naval positions that are 
coveted by patriotic Japanese. These privileges had been 
extended to mission and other private schools which con- 
formed to the government regulations and submitted to 
inspection. These schools were free to teach religion. But 
August 3, 1899, Count Kabayama, the Minister of State 
for Education in Japan, issued the following order: 

"It being essential from the point of view of educational adminis- 
tration that general education should be independent of religion, re- 
ligious instruction must not be given or religious ceremonies performed 
at government schools, public schools or schools whose curricula are 
regulated by provisions of law, even outside the regular course of 
instruction." 



NATIONALISM AND MISSION SCHOOLS 589 

This confronted mission schools with the alternative of 
abandoning religious instruction or relinquishing their gov- 
ernment registration, with the resultant forfeiture of the 
privileges which registration carried. It was feared that 
young men would not attend schools whose diplomas 
would debar them from so much that they valued. But 
the majority of missionaries and boards held that compli- 
ance would secularize their schools; that they should not 
use missionary funds for secular education; and that mis- 
sion educational work was distinctively for Christ and the 
church. A committee consisting of seven eminent Japanese 
Christians and seven representative missionaries of various 
communions presented a protest to Count Kabayama, the 
Vice-Minister, Mr. Okuda, and the Counsellor of the De- 
partment, Mr. Okada. The published report of the com- 
mittee indicated the frankness and earnestness with which 
the protest was urged, the protestants declaring: "It is a 
conviction of conscience with the friends of the schools 
which we represent that instruction in rehgion is essential 
to education, both as a matter of knowledge and also as 
the most effective incentive to right living. The Instruc- 
tion of the Department of Education compels us either to 
surrender this conviction or to subject the students attend- 
ing our schools to serious disadvantages. . . . That such 
an instruction infringes upon the principle of religious lib- 
erty is clear to every thoughtful mind.'' 

The committee was most courteously received, but the 
officials were inflexible in the conviction that the regula- 
tion must be enforced. The result was that many mission 
schools saw their attendance dwindle to a handful, and it 
looked for a time as if the end of mission educational work 
in Japan had come. But the protest of missionaries and 
Japanese Christians was vigorously taken up by the mis- 
sionary societies and their supporters in Great Britain and 
America. The Japanese authorities were finally convinced 
that a mistake had been made and the regulation was grad- 
ually allowed to drop out of sight. In the words of a dis- 
tinguished Japanese Christian educator: '^In order to main- 



590 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

taiii the principle of religious liberty, we gave up important 
privileges. But by patiently laying the matter before the 
authorities, we have succeeded in regaining one by one 
the lost privileges; so that finally the difference between 
the government middle school and our middle school de- 
partment is less than nominal. Even the names are al- 
most identical. The one is Chugakko, and the other is 
Chugaku-bu." Since then, mission schools in Japan have 
had comparatively little trouble. Schools that make re- 
ligious instruction and chapel services compulsory cannot 
obtain government registration, but schools that make them 
voluntary can register and teach the Bible and conduct 
religious services as freely as they please. Most of the 
mission schools have adopted this course, with the gratify- 
ing result that about four-fifths of the students elect to 
take religious teaching. 

This happy result was doubtless due, in some degree at 
least, to the fact that the schools in Japan are for the Japa- 
nese themselves, that they are few in number as compared 
with the thousands of public schools, and that, as a rule, they 
are not elementary schools or colleges. The government has 
the lower and higher educational fields almost wholly to 
itself, and the limited number of mission institutions of in- 
termediate grade, while excellent in character, are, in the 
estimation of the government, not relatively numerous 
enough to form a serious factor in the educational system 
of the country. 

In Korea, however, different conditions prevail. Here is 
an outlying dependency, occupied by a conquered people of 
different race and resentful attitude, w^hich the government 
is trying to assimilate; numerous and flourishing schools 
which had grown up under Korean rule and are believed to 
require considerable modification to make them pro-Japa- 
nese instead of pro-Korean; and, most disturbing of all, 
the greater part of the educational system in the hands of 
foreigners. It is true that of 2,080 private schools at the 
time of annexation, only 778 were officially listed as mission 
schools. But save for a few notable exceptions, the others 



NATIONALISM AND MISSION SCHOOLS 591 

were of small consequence, a negligible factor from the 
view-point of modern educational character. What more 
natural therefore than that the Japanese should concern 
themselves with this situation, try to get education into 
their own hands, and open public schools ? Hence the edu- 
cational Ordinances promulgated March 24, 1915. 

With a courteous desire to make these regulations availa- 
ble for Enghsh readers and to explain their character and 
purpose, the Honorable M. Komatsu wrote to me about 
them on April 8 and November 4, 1915, enclosing with the 
former letter a detailed explanation that he had published 
in the Seoul Press of April 2 and 3 of that year under the 
caption: ^^ Separation of Education and Religion.'^ The 
Honorable Teisaburo Sekiya, Director of the Bureau of 
Education, also published articles in the Nagasaki Press 
of March 30, 1915, and the Japan Advertiser of August 7; 
and the Honorable K. Usami, Minister of Home Affairs, 
made further public statements in the Seoul Press of March 
17, 18, 19, and 21, 1915. These '^Ordinances,'' 'instruc- 
tions," and "Regulations'' and the official explanations of 
them will be memorable in the history of missions and of 
education. We need not write of them in detail, as most of 
them relate to questions of inspection, ciu-riculum, grade 
of work, qualifications of teachers, and other matters about 
which missionaries raise no question. Many of the rules 
are excellent, indicating careful studj^ of modern educational 
methods and intelligence in applying them. Others, how- 
ever, have caused deep concern to missionaries and mission 
boards, as they appear to forbid all religious teaching and 
services in mission as well as government schools. 

We are trying to be fair to the Japanese point of ^dew, 
and that we are not misrepresenting it will appear from the 
following extracts from the government regulations and 
from official interpretations and applications of them: 

"In such schools (private), no religious teaching is permitted to be 
included in their curricula nor can religious ceremonies be allowed to 
be performed." (Instructions concerning the revision and enforce- 



592 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

ment of the private school regulations, issued by the Government- 
General, March 24, 1915.) 

**The principle of the separation of education and religion is abso- 
lutely necessary in Korea. . . . The enforcement of the principle 
. . . does not admit of any objections or criticism by anybody, native 
or foreign. . . . The recent amendment made in the regulations for 
private schools is nothing more or less than a step taken for attaining 
the aim of assimilation by directing and unifying the trend of the 
popular mind. Accordingly it has been provided in the regulations 
that all schools engaged in national (general) education, no matter 
whether they be government, public, or private establishments, should 
conform to the educational policy fixed by the government." (The 
Honorable M. Komatsu, in the Seoul Press, April 2 and 3, and No- 
vember 25, 1915.) 

"The authorities are very appreciative of the valuable contributions 
made by religious schools in Korea to the development of civilization 
and education, but they cannot allow the present state of education 
in Korea to continue for long. . . . Private schools are required to 
fix their curricula in accordance with regulations controlling public 
common schools, higher common schools, or government special 
schools, it being also prohibited to them to include any course of study 
other than those authorized by these regulations. In consequence, 
in all these schools it is prohibited to give religious education or to 
observe religious rites." (The Honorable Teisaburo Sekiya, in the 
Nagasaki Press, March 30, 1915.) 

"The Government-General, in carrying into effect the Educational 
Ordinance for Korea, announces that not only government and public 
schools but also private schools, whose curricula are fixed by pro- 
visions of law, shall not be permitted to give religious instruction or 
conduct religious ceremonies." (The Official Gazette, Tokyo, March 
29, 1915.) 

Mission schools which had a government permit when 
the regulations were announced were given ten years in 
which to adapt themselves to the new requirements. Other 
schools were required to conform or close. The Presby- 
terian Academy for girls at Syenchyun, and the Southern 
Presbyterian Academy for girls at Soonchun^ although 
established before the law went into effect, had not received 
their permits on account of technical delays. The mission- 
aries felt that they could not conduct mission schools with- 
out Bible teaching and chapel services, and the Japanese 
magistrates closed both institutions, the Soonchun official 



NATIONALISM AND MISSION SCHOOLS 593 

order reading: "Your having no intention of removing re- 
ligion from the curriculum and making application to estab- 
lish becomes clearly disobedience to the established law. 
Therefore from this time on I am ordered to forbid instruc- 
tions therein. I also have these instructions from high 
authorities, which I transmit to you." Three poHcemen 
went to the school the same day to see that this order was 
enforced. An order to the same effect was issued by the 
magistrate at Syenchyun to the Girls' Academy in that city. 
The missionaries in both stations felt that they ought not 
to conduct mission schools without Bible teaching and 
chapel services, and so the academies were closed. 

The following statements apparently indicated a disposi- 
tion to carry to its logical conclusion the principle that 
education should be deemed exclusively a function of the 
state and that mission schools should be eliminated: 

"The undertaking of general educational work by the missions in 
Korea is a temporary work of expedience, and along with the comple- 
tion of the general educational system by the government, mission 
schools will gradually decrease in number or lose their raison d'etre. 
... It is not quite unlikely that in six or seven years to come there 
will be no mission schools in Korea undertaking common education." 
(Letter of the Honorable M. Komatsu, November 4, 1915.) 

"Our object of education is not only to develop the intellect and 
morality of our people but also to foster in their minds such national 
spirit as will contribute to the existence and -vyelfare of our Empire. 
Accordingly we are resolved to maintain an absolute independence in 
regard to our policy and system concerning national education, 
which we formulate and put iuto effect by ourselves without foreign 
interference or assistance. It follows then that educational work 
inaugurated by Foreign Missions in the days of the former Korean 
Government must be modified to-day so as to keep pace with the prog- 
ress of our plan to carry out modern administrative measures. I sin- 
cerely hope that you will appreciate thi^ change of the time and under- 
stand that missions should leave all affairs relating to education entirely 
in the hands of the government by transferring the money and labor 
they have hitherto been expending on education to their proper sphere 
of religious propagation. . . . Whatever the curriculum of a school 
may be, it is natural that the students of that school should be influ- 
enced by the ideas and personal character of its principal and teach- 
ers. Education must be decidedly nationalistic and must not be 



594 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

mixed up with religion that is universal. . . . While the propagation 
of religion must belong solely to the control of the church, educational 
work nmst entirel}^ come under that of the go\'ernment. . . . Pre- 
cisely as the government should not interfere with religion, so the 
church should not interfere with political administration in general 
and education, which is part of the administrative work, in particular," 
(The Honorable M. Komatsu in the Seoul Press, April 3, 1915.) 

The dismay of the missionaries can be easily imagined. 
They felt that to forbid religious teaching in mission schools 
was equivalent to a denial of that educational and re- 
ligious freedom which they had supposed that it was the 
pride of Japan to accord. A mission school that is not 
permitted to have Bible study does not possess educational 
freedom, and religion that is not permitted to teach the 
Bible in its own schools is not free. The Federated Council 
of Missions in Korea, in September, 1915, adopted with 
only one dissenting vote a resolution which declared that 
"The Federal Comicil feels itself called upon, in view of the 
interests of its home constituency, the purpose for which 
alone its members reside in this land and the object for 
which the funds used to maintain schools are contributed, 
to affirm that in our judgment the conditions would cripple 
if not completely close our Christian schools." 

Those who were inclined to place the most favorable 
constmction upon a governmental policy, sought to reas- 
sure themselves in three ways. 

The fii-st was the belief that mission schools could count 
upon the same measure of freedom in Korea that they 
have long enjoyed in Japan, and that the new regulations 
should be interpreted by our experience there. This belief 
was soon seen to be illusory. "In Japan proper," wrote a 
missionary, "if the mission school conforms to the govern- 
ment system, it has certain privileges which other schools 
do not have. It may, however, continue to operate if it 
does not conform, in which case it has the utmost freedom 
of religious instruction in its curriculum. The option given 
is: 'Conform or stay out.' In Korea the option is: 'Con- 
form or close up.' One is an option of permission, the other 



NATIONALISM AND MISSION SCHOOLS 595 

an option of suppression. No liberty of choice is given. 
It is secularize or go out of business.'' Mr. Komatsu 
frankly recognized and defended this fundamental distinc- 
tion in the following declaration: 

"I often hear that some missionaries in Korea entertain the opinion 
that the same educational policy as pursued in Japan should be ap- 
plied to Korea and the same privilege as extended to mission schools 
in the mother country be extended to similar institutions in the 
peninsula. This opinion, I do not hesitate to say, emanates from an 
erroneous conception of conditions existing in the two different parts 
of the country. . . . Should Korea attain the same stage of progress 
as in Japan, there can be no room for disputing about the matter; 
but inasmuch as the educational conditions in the two parts are widely 
different, it is altogether unreasonable to ask for the enforcement of 
one and the same practice in the two different parts." (x\rticle: 
"Separation of Education and Religion," in the Seoul Press, Novem- 
ber 25, 1915.) 

The second hope lay in the reassuring personal v/ords of 
prominent Japanese; but in reply to an inquiry which re- 
ferred to such utterances, Mr. Komatsu wrote, May 5, 1916: 
"All official affairs are to be dealt with according to written 
laws concerned." 

The third hope was that Bible teaching might be given 
and chapel services held in the school either before or after 
the hours devoted to the curriculum prescribed by the gov- 
ernment regulations. Visitors and missionaries received 
encouraging impressions in personal interviews. But Sep- 
tember 17, 1915, the following general instruction (Educa- 
tion Order No. 1371) was sent to the provincial officials 
throughout the country: 

"It is not permitted to add the teaching of religion to the regular 
courses of study taught in such schools. Nor is it permitted to give 
instruction in religion under the name of optional studies added to the 
regular courses of study; or to hold religious services as a part of the 
school work. This is to be clearly understood. On the other hand, 
there will be no objection to using the school buildings for religious 
purposes, provided it is done outside of the school work. In such 
cases, however, care should be taken not to confuse this with the 
work of the school, and also not to constrain scholars to accept re- 



596 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Hgious beliefs against their will. This communication is sent by 
order of the authorities, and it is hoped that due attention will be 
given to the matter." 



This was supplemented October 29, 1915, by an "Instruc- 
tion from the Director of Home Affairs Department to the 
Chief of Police Department/' which included the following 
sentence: "If those hearing the (religious) lectures are cer- 
tainly the students of the school, I judge it a thing to be 
forbidden, in that it would be difficult to distinguish this 
from the work of the school." 

It is unjust to the Japanese to charge that their educa- 
tional regulations were framed for the purpose of hamper- 
ing Christianity as such. Mr. Komatsu truly said in the 
Seoul Press of November 25, 1915: "I regret to hear that 
there are some people who are apt to consider this measure 
as one aimed at creating a restriction on religious activity. 
Nothing could be further from the truth than such pre- 
sumption. . . . Freedom of religion is assured to each and 
all." And Governor-General Terauchi is reported to have 
said: "There is perfect freedom of religious belief, and not 
only tolerance but friendship for Christianity. The doing 
away with Bible study in Korean mission schools is a na- 
tional and educational measure and not a discrimination 
against Christianity." 

This is undoubtedly true; but it needs to be interpreted 
by the conviction to which we have referred, namely that 
education belongs in the sphere of the state as distinguished 
from that of the church, so that religion has no proper place 
in it. The church is first defined in a way which deprives 
it of an important part of its functions, and then it is told 
that its liberty is unimpaired within the limits of the defini- 
tion. Unfortunately, this does not help in sohang the 
present problem, for while the missionaries gladly recog- 
nize their freedom in evangelistic work, they cannot concur 
in a theoiy of rehgious effort which excludes education. 

In excluding religion from all schools, private as well as 
public, the Japanese were under the impression that they 



NATIONALISM AND MISSION SCHOOLS 597 

were simply following the example of the most enlightened 
Western nations. An official statement in the Seoul Press 
of April 2, 1915, included the following: ''With the excep- 
tion of theological schools aiming at the study of religion, 
no school in the United States gives religious teaching.'' 
American readers are well aware that this is a misappre- 
hension. In the United States the responsibility of the 
state extends only to the provision and regulation of insti- 
tutions that are supported in whole or in part by taxation. 
The thousands of private institutions have no relation to 
or supervision by the government. The schools maintained 
by the state exclude religious teaching, although some of 
them permit the reading of the Bible and an opening prayer. 
Private schools, however, are entirely free to teach what 
they please, and how they please, religion included, and the 
government freely grants them charters of incorporation. 

These statements are substantially true of British edu- 
cational policy. The best institutions in Great Britain, 
including Oxford, Cambridge, the Scotch universities, and 
such secondary schools as Eton, Rugby, Harrow, and scores 
of others, though some of them are called ''public schools,'' 
are not government schools at all but are privately con- 
trolled and are subject to no government regulations what- 
ever, although the royal family and the highest officers of 
the government have educated their sons in these schools 
for generations. Many of their teachers are ordained clergy- 
men, and nearly all of the others are communicant members 
of churches. Religion is freely taught in them, and many 
of the best Bible commentaries, devotional volumes, and 
other religious publications of the whole Christian world 
have been prepared by the members of their faculties. 

In India, the Despatch of 1854 based the educational 
system for that great dependency on two principles: (1) re- 
Hance on private schools supervised and aided by the gov- 
ernment, and (2) "an entire absence from interference vrith 
the religious instmction conveyed in the schools assisted." 
Unsuccessful effort has been made for several years to in- 
duce the Indian Government to insert a "conscience clause'' 



598 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

which would exclude compulsory religious exercises from 
missionary as well as non-missionar}^ schools. The Na- 
tional Missionary Council of India adopted the following 
resolutions in 1917: 

"That this Council expresses its conviction of the soundness of the 
principle on which the educational policy of the government in India 
is based, viz., of giving impartial aid to all institutions which con- 
tribute efficiently to general education, without reference to the re- 
ligious instruction given, and deprecates any departure from that 
principle in the widest interest of the public. 

*'That all education given by missions or missionaries must be radi- 
cally Christian, . . . and including instruction in the Bible as the 
greatest of books for the teaching of truth and the building of character. 

"That Christian educational institutions exist to provide such edu- 
cation for all who are willing to receive it, and claim a definite sphere 
in which to exercise this function, and it is unreasonable to require 
Christian missionaries to participate in giving any education which 
is not fundamentally Christian. 

"That wherever there is a sufficient demand for other than Christian 
education, the Council holds it is the duty of private or public bodies 
to provide it." 

The justice of this position has been generally recognized. 
Turkey and Mexico prohibit religious teaching in church 
schools; but no friend of Japan wishes to see her in their 
class. Moreover, the governments of those countries have 
reasons, such as they are, which do not exist in Korea. 

Japanese officials urged that if the Government-General 
of Korea should permit Christianity to be taught in the 
private schools that the mission boards maintain, it must 
also permit Buddhism to be taught in any schools that 
Buddhists may desire to maintain. Missionaries have not 
the slightest objection to this. They ask no special favors 
whatever, but only religious liberty. Since the Imperial 
Government of Japan has recognized both Christianity and 
Buddhism as religions of the Empire, we are at a loss to 
understand why the adherents of either faith should not be 
permitted educational freedom as well as political freedom. 
History and the experience of other countries conclusively 
prove that the true interests of the state are injured rather 



NATIONALISM AND MISSION SCHOOLS 599 

than benefited by any restriction of the freedom of educa- 
tion and reHgion. Mission schools seek to train a child to 
a high type of Christian character and manhood; and such 
character and manhood form the securest possible founda- 
tion for the state as well as for the church. If, as Prince 
Ito declared, "civilization depends upon morality, and the 
highest morality upon religion," then religion has a proper 
place in education; and if the state cannot put it into the 
government schools, there is all the more reason for allow- 
ing private schools to do so. President Woodrow Wilson 
knows both education and government as well as any living 
man, and he has said that "the argument for efficiency in 
education can have no permanent validity if the efficiency 
sought be not moral as well as intellectual. The ages of 
strong and definite moral impulse have been the ages of 
achievement; and the moral impulses which have lifted 
highest have come from Christian peoples." 

The question has been asked whether the missionaries 
mean that a Christian should not teach in a public school 
in America because religious instruction is forbidden. The 
question is not to the point. We are not considering public 
schools maintained by taxation for children of all religious 
preferences or none at all. We are dealing in Korea with 
private schools maintained by Christian people, with no 
help from the state, for such pupils as may be sent to them 
by parents who desire Christian instmction for them. The 
Japanese Government is developing a public school system 
in Korea which will give a good secular education, and we 
do not ask that it include religion, nor do we object to any 
Korean boys and girls attending the government schools. 
The only reason why the mission boards should conduct 
schools lies in the desire to train boys and girls mider such 
strong Christian influence that they will become men and 
women not only of good education but of high character 
and personal worth, so that the church may obtain from 
their ranks its ministers, evangelists, teachers, and laymen 
to sustain and lead its large and beneficent religious, phil- 
anthropic, and uplifting efforts. 



600 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

It should be borne in mind, as an important factor in the 
problem, that no schools in Korea are neutral toward re- 
ligion, whatever the legal theory may be. In countries like 
America and Great Britain, where the Christian sentiment 
in communities is strong and there are ample educational 
facilities under Christian auspices for those who prefer 
them, the religious neutrality of public schools is more 
easily preserved; but in a countr}" like Korea neutrality is 
impossible. Every institution there is either definitely 
Christian or definitely non-Christian or anti-Christian in 
influence. The Government-General of Korea itself effec- 
tively proves this. \Mille it prohibits Christian religious 
exercises as a part of the curriculum and procedure of 
schools, it puts other religious teaching into its text-books 
and rec{uired ceremonies. A text-book on ethics, issued by 
the government for use in all schools, includes among its 
illustrations three Koreans prostrating themselves before 
the grave of their ancestors, on which there are sacrificial 
offerings. The accompanying text reads: 

"Lesson 17 — Ancestors 

"These persons have swept the grave clean, and prepared and set 
out in order the various kinds of sacrifices. 

"It will not do at all for anyone to neglect the sacrifices to his 
ancestors." 

Mission as well as public schools are required to use this 
book and no substitute is permitted. The Japanese au- 
thorities do not appear to see the inconsistency between 
forbidding the teaching of the Christian religion in a school 
and commanding the teaching of ancestor-worship. They 
claim that the latter is ^'not religion but merely a good so- 
cial custom teaching respect for parents.'' But the ''sac- 
rifices" are distinctly religious, and the people universally 
regard them as such. 

A related difficulty grows out of the observance of na- 
tional holidays. The mission schools gladly celebrate those 
which commemorate events of historical importance, like 
the anniversary^ of the founding of the Empire, which corre- 



NATIONALISM AND MISSION SCHOOLS 601 

spends in general to the American Fourth of July. But 
in Korea; most of these holidays are simply the days on 
which the Emperor offers the Imperial Sacrifices^ and their 
significance is understood to be religious. Since April 1, 
1915; when the new school laws went into effect, the mis- 
sion schools have been ordered to hold "ceremonies" on 
these dayS; and the missionaries do not find it eas}^ to devise 
an observance of a "sacrificial day" that is satisfactoiy to 
the watchful officials. 

A special complication develops when ceremonial days 
fall on Sunday. For example, in connection with the anni- 
versary of the death of the Empress Dowager, a mission 
school received an order to assemble its teachers and pupils 
at the hour of Sunday morning service and hold a "wor- 
shipping-at-a-distance ceremony." The word used for 
worship w^as the word used where the one worshipped is 
regarded as divine; and the missionaries were directed to 
report afterward exactly what they had done. They de- 
cided that they could not comply with this order; but they 
held a memorial service at three o^clock the preceding after- 
noon, and on Monday so reported. They expected trouble, 
but none resulted, although the officials were plainly dis- 
pleased. 

Ceremonial worship in schools before the picture of the 
Emperor on his birthday, and daily bowing before it by 
teachers in schools recognized by the government, are other 
observances that are not so simple as they sound, since 
they are interpreted to be not merety tokens of respect to 
the sovereign but acts of worship to a divine person. De- 
mocracy and Christianity do not relish such ceremonies. 
Some Japanese assert that they are really nothing more 
than the salute to the flag in American schools in the United 
States. If this were all, it would be captious to object. 
Unfortunately, not only missionaries but Korean Christians 
generally as well as many Japanese regard them as a rever- 
ential recognition of the divinity of the Emperor and a 
religious function. This was illustrated by the following 
incident, which I give in the exact form in which it was 



C02 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

repoiled by a British missionary: '^The celcl}ration of the 
Emperor's birthday fell upon a Smiday, and our school re- 
ceived orders to assemble on the day and to sing the na- 
tional anthem and listen to a speech by the principal of the 
school. It has been customary in the past to hold such 
ceremonies, if they fell on Sunday, in a Christian manner, 
opening with prayer and a Bible reading, and perhaps sing- 
ing a hymn. This time we received very definite instruc- 
tions. There must be no religious ceremony of any kind; 
the church work must be conducted quite distinct from 
the school work; the celebration must be held strictly in 
accordance with the programme submitted, and the school 
must assemble as a school and do reverence to the name of 
the Emperor. I interviewed the Prefect and asked him if 
we could not meet on Saturday, or, if that were not possible, 
to hold the meeting on Sunday but to include some recog- 
nition in the meeting of our Christian position. He refused 
the request and said that we must carry out the request of 
the authorities. I replied that it was not a question of 
custom but of conscience, and that as a Christian I would 
have to refuse to conduct such a meeting on a Sunday, a 
day set apart for the worship of God. His reply was re- 
markable : ^ Y/e put the Emperor first and all Gods second, 
and you must hold the celebration even though it is on 
Sunday.' This, of course, settled the matter, and I had 
no more to say; but I wrote to him next day and again 
explained my position. In direct antagonism to his orders, 
we held our celebration on the Saturday. No doubt the 
school again is marked down as wanting in loyalty and 
patriotism." 

Some of the missionaries and their boards in America, 
while of course preferring to have the Bible in the cur- 
riculum and to have chapel services compulsor}^, did not 
deem it wise to force the issue on these points alone. If a 
definite part of the day were set apart for the curriculum 
prescribed by the government, they were willing to have 
their Bible teaching and chapel service either before or after 
the hours devoted to it, provided there were freedom for 



NATIONALISM AND MISSION SCHOOLS G03 

religious instruction and services on the school premises 
and as a recognized part of the school life. 

Mr. Komatsu's statement in the Seoul Press of November 
25, 1915, was held to justify this, for he said: ^^It is per- 
fectly free for students of all schools, whether governmental 
or private, to study the Bible outside of the school and fixed 
school-hours under private teachers, or at special institutes 
such as Sunday schools, seminaries or churches." Bishop 
Merriman C. Harris, then resident bishop of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, decided that it would be wise to show 
good- will by conforming to the regulations on this basis, even 
in the case of schools that were entitled to the ten-year pe- 
riod of grace. Accordingly, he applied for a permit for the 
Methodist Pai Chai Academy for Boys in Seoul. The Jap- 
anese promptly issued it, and the event was made the oc- 
casion of a celebration at which mutual felicitations were ex- 
changed. The favor of the government caused a flood of 
applications for enrollment. Bishop Harris was convinced 
that he took the best course in view of all the circum- 
stances, and a number of missionaries supported him in 
this position. Others strongly dissented, declaring that they 
were unable to see how a law which expHcitly commands 
the separation of education and religion in mission schools 
is compatible with that union of education and religion 
which mission schools are primarily maintained to secure. 

At this writing, the ten-year period of grace, given to 
mission schools that were in authorized operation when the 
law went into effect, has not expired, and many of the 
schools are continuing their religious teaching under its 
sanction; although several have deemed it wiser to follow 
the example of the Pai Chai Academy. Meantime, large 
significance has been attached to the charter which the 
Government-General issued April 7, 1917, to the newly 
organized Chosen Christian College in Seoul, represent- 
ing a union of mission boards. Article II of this charter, 
styled the ^^Hojin,'' stated that the "object of this Hojin 
shall be to establish and maintain this College in accordance 
with Christian principles '\* Article IV that "the managers, 



604 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

officers, members of the faculty and all the instructors 
must be beHevers in and followers of the doctrines contained 
in the Christian Bible"; Articles VI and VII that two- 
thirds of the members of the Hojin are to be chosen by the 
missions of the co-operating boards, and the remaining 
one-third of such '^Christian Japanese subjects as these 
missionaries shall elect''; and Articles XVIII and XIX 
provide for the possible dissolution of the Hojin and the re- 
version of the property to the original donors or their suc- 
cessors, so that the co-operating boards, after due notice, 
can withdraw their missionaries and their financial support 
if at any time they should become convinced that the col- 
lege is not sufficiently Christian in character and influence 
to justify support as a part of the missionary work in Korea. 
The Honorable K. Usami, Director of Home Affairs of the 
Government-General, in connection with a letter dated 
September 22 to Doctor 0. R. Avison, president of the 
college, said: "There will be no restriction for students as 
to the free study of religion if they do it quite apart from 
the regular curriculum.'' 

While the Hojin does not afford all the liberty that mis- 
sion schools have long enjoyed in Korea, as well as in other 
fields, it was viewed as proof of the readiness of the officials 
to recognize the Christian character and purpose of an edu- 
cational institution conducted by mission boards as an 
integral part of their Christian effort, and to give it as large 
a measure of religious freedom as they could under the law. 
The fact that the college was to be located in Seoul, that it 
planned to do the kind of educational work that the Gov- 
ernment-General desired to have done, that Japanese were to 
be represented on the faculty and Field Board of Managers, 
and that the missionaries in charge were men whom the 
government officials best knew and most trusted, doubtless 
smoothed the way for this institution. Substantially the 
same arrangement was made in the Hojin of the Severance 
Union Medical College in Seoul. Japanese of high rank, 
including Mr. Sekiya, Director of the Bureau of Education, 
joined in what the Seoul Press described as a "congratula- 



NATIONALISM AND MISSION SCHOOLS 605 

tory meeting'^ June 15, at which hearty good wishes for 
both colleges were freely expressed. A considerable num- 
ber of missionaries, although not a majority, and all of the 
five boards in North America voted to accept the Hojin, 
not because it conceded all they wanted, but because they 
felt that it was offered in a friendly spirit as the most prac- 
ticable present adjustment of an admittedly difficult prob- 
lem, and an advance step which would make other advances 
easier at a later time. 

Here the matter stands as these pages go to press. What 
will happen at the expiration of the ten-year period of grace 
in 1925 remains to be seen. Meantime, the Chosen Chris- 
tian College and the other conforming institutions are pros- 
pering greatly, while the other mission schools are having 
far from easy going. An illustration of their predicament 
appeared in connection v/ith the graduating exercises of the 
Pyengyang Junior College last year. Four students made 
addresses. The foreigners present deemed them void of 
offense, but the police declared that all the speakers had 
said things subversive of the public good. The students 
were arrested, interrogated, and then released, as their pre- 
vious records had been good. The provincial chief of the 
gendarmes, however, summoned the students before him 
and again investigated the case. The president of the col- 
lege was called to the office and strictly charged to exercise 
greater care in the future. The matter was then reported 
to the Governor of the Province, and then to the Governor- 
General. The latter wrote to the president of the college 
that the indiscretion of the students was so serious that 
the government was contemplating closing the school. A 
similar communication was sent by the Governor-General 
to the provincial Governor, who thereupon called the 
president to his office and said that unless he was prepared 
to make certain changes the college would have to close. 
These changes were enumerated as follows: (1) Appointment 
of a Japanese head master; (2) dismissal of three of the 
boys who had spoken, relief of the fourth from certain as- 
signments of teaching which he was doing in the academy, 



00(i THE MASTERY OF THE EAll EAST 

and promise not to repeat the oratorical programme in the 
future; (3) secure more Japanese teachers, especially those 
who could understand Korean; (4) do all teaching, except 
the Chinese classics, Korean language, and English, through 
the medium of the Japanese language; (5) prepare syllabi of 
the subjects of instruction so as to limit it to specified points, 
teachers not to deviate from them or to speak on forbidden 
subjects; (6) conform under the new regulations. When the 
president replied that he would do all that he could to 
make the first five changes desired, but that as to the sixth 
change, the mission preferred to continue for the present 
under the old permit which entitled the college to the ten- 
year period of grace, the official was plainly disappointed 
and he intimated that number six was the most important 
of all. 

I think that we should consider the whole subject from 
the view-point of real friendship for the Japanese, of respect 
for their general policy in Korea, and of frank recognition 
of their point of view. We are not challenging their proper 
authority when we seek that reasonable religious freedom 
in mission schools which all civilized nations afford and 
which has been hitherto enjoyed in Korea. That the 
attitude of the missionaries was not influenced by prejudice 
is shown by the fact that the protest of the Council of 
Federated Missions, already quoted, was accompanied by 
the declaration that we "record our thankfulness to God 
for the freedom of conscience and the religious liberty we 
enjoy under the Imperial Government of Japan, and that 
as residents of the Empire of Japan and as Christian mis- 
sionaries we recognize the constituted civil authorities as 
ordained by God and to be duly honored and obeyed in 
accordance with the Word of God." 

We should also bear in mind the fundamental considera- 
tion already referred to, namely, that what the Japanese 
object to in Korea is not Christianity but the influence over 
their subjects and over hundreds of schools of a large body 
of Americans who are aliens in race and in social and politi- 
cal ideas, and who are regarded by many Japanese as an 



NATIONALISM AND MISSION SCHOOLS 607 

obstacle to their national policy. The position so axiomatic 
to the mission boards — that religion is an essential part of 
the missionary programme — ^has become somewhat over- 
shadowed in the minds of the Japanese authorities by the 
political question of the general relationship of a body of 
foreigners to the governmental supremacy of the Japanese. 
I am inclined to think that the Government-General is more 
deeply interested in the recognition of its rightful authority 
in Korea than it is in the question of religion in schools, 
that it cares comparatively little whether the Bible is in 
or out of the curriculum of a private school, but that it cares 
a great deal whether the atmosphere of a school begets re- 
spect and loyalty for the government. Governor-General 
Terauchi is understood to have said that he could not afford 
to have little American citizens made out of Korean boys 
and girls. This suspicion lies at the bottom of present 
problems, and it must be dispelled before they can be solved. 
A happy adjustment may be practicable on the basis of 
complete mutual confidence that would be impossible with- 
out it. Fortunately, this does not involve a change in 
missionary policy, as the missionaries do not want to make 
Korean boys and girls into "little American citizens.^' 

The general educational regulations of the Japanese 
Governor-General are being scrupulously obeyed to the 
utmost limit of financial ability. The government has an 
unquestioned right to demand a reasonable standard in the 
schools which educate its subjects, and to object to any 
text-books or observances that are not compatible with the 
effort to develop that loyalty to Japan which is essential 
to its policy of unification. Observance of the American 
Fourth of July is out of place in Korea, and it is not the busi- 
ness of missionaries to teach the history of the Declaration 
of Independence and the American Revolution in such a 
way as to permit Korean youths to get the impression that 
they should emulate American example. As for equip- 
ment and grade of work, if the mission boards cannot main- 
tain schools with sanitary buildings and qualified teachers, 
they have no right to complain if the government objects. 



608 THE AIASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

We should thoroughly respect and sympathize with the de- 
sire of the government to systematize, co-ordinate, and 
improve the educational institutions of the country. The 
mission boards have long realized that they needed improve- 
ment, and they cordially desire to co-operate with the Bu- 
reau of Education in its laudable efforts to this end. 

The ordinance regarding the separation of education 
from religion stands in a different category inasmuch as 
it affects the vital character of mission schools and the 
essential purpose for which they are maintained, and as it 
also affects the other important principles which have been 
discussed in this chapter. We are loyal to the American 
Government in the Philippine Islands; but if the American 
Governor there were to forbid religious teaching in privately 
maintained mission schools, they would yield only to for- 
cible closing by police; and their supporters would not ad- 
mit that the government's general benevolence of intention 
could be properly pleaded in justification of its course. 
It should be distinctly understood, therefore, that any 
protest in Korea is not caused in the slightest degree by 
anti-Japanese sentiment, but that it is only what Ameri- 
cans would unhesitatingly make if their own government 
in the Philippines were to adopt a similar measure. 

It has been said that if we expect to have the regula- 
tions modified, we should keep still, as protest wdll simply 
harden the government in its position and make it feel that 
it cannot change without sacrifice of its dignity — losing 
"face.'' This has not been our experience in dealings with 
the Japanese. They are courageously loyal to their own 
con^dctions, and they respect courage and loyalty in others. 
They are, withal, sensible men who have more than once 
showed themselves open to candid approach. I have 
described elsewhere the courteous consideration that was 
given to the respectful remonstrances that were made by 
the missionaries and their supporters in America and Great 
Britain in connection with the order of the Minister of State 
for Education in Japan in 1899 and the Korean Conspiracy 
Case, in 1912-13. In the case of the Doshisha College in 



NATIONALISM AND MISSION SCHOOLS 609 

Kyoto, then under the care of the American Board of Com- 
missioners for Foreign Missions, the discussion was long 
and animated, but it ended satisfactorily. 

It is extraordinary that any one should feel that no pro- 
test should be made against an official act on the ground 
that protest would make the officials more determined to 
persist in it. What would be the condition of the world if 
such a course were to be everywhere folloAved ? Is it reason- 
able to expect that any government, having promulgated 
a law, would abstain from enforcing it because nobody pro- 
tested? If no protest is made against a given ordinance, 
why should not a government carry it into effect? Those 
who warn missionaries to yield without effort in this matter 
can hardly be conscious of the severe criticism of the Gov- 
ernment-General which they are really makings for their 
warning can only mean that they deem responsible Japanese 
officials to be so stubborn and reactionary that they will 
not listen to the opinions of their fellow men. Being myself 
a friend of the Japanese, I do them the justice to believe 
that they are rational and fair-minded men, and amenable 
to reasonable suggestion. I therefore have no hesitation 
whatever in approaching them with the same frankness with 
which I would approach our own government in Washing- 
ton, or broad-minded men an^^where, and I invariably find 
that my confidence is not misplaced. 

I renew the expression of my belief that what the govern- 
ment chiefly desires is fair recognition of its rightful juris- 
diction in Korea, its national policy of assimilation with 
Japan, and its just purpose to see that Korean youths are 
well educated and that they are trained in loyalty of feel- 
ing to the constituted authorities. As for the mission boards, 
all they ask is that liberty that they have hitherto had, to 
teach Christ and the Bible in the private schools that they 
and the Korean Christians maintain. It should seem as if 
on this basis some amicable adjustment ought to be possible 
that would conserve the objects that each party deems 
essential. The boards and missions have no selfish interest 
in maintaining schools in Korea. They are expending 



GIO THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

much labor and money for the sole purpose of doing good 
to the people and with no thought of advantage to them- 
selves. It is their earnest desire to co-operate with the 
Government-General in every possible way and with no 
reservation whatever except freedom to keep God in the 
forefront of all their institutions and activities. If they 
fail to do this, they fail in the chief reason for their exist- 
ence and should withdraw from Korea altogether. 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

ROMAN CATHOLIC AND RUSSIAN ORTHODOX 
MISSIONS IN JAPAN 

A SEPARATE volume^ and a bulky one at that, would be 
required to tell in any adequate way the story of Christian 
missions in Japan. Indeed, Otis Cary devoted two closely 
printed volumes to his admirable History of Christianity in 
Japan, and the separate books that have been published 
by other writers upon particular phases of the work and the 
lives of notable missionaries would fiU a fair-sized library. 
It is a stirring record, abounding in incident, fuU of human 
interest, and far-reaching in reconstructive influence. 

To the Roman Catholics belongs the credit of making the 
first effort to carry the Gospel to Japan, and it was a Jesuit 
who bore it. One of the five devoted souls whom Ignatius 
Loyola associated with himself in founding the Society of 
Jesus in the dark and stormy years of the sixteenth century 
was the immortal Francis Xavier. A gifted youth, educated 
at the University of Paris, he with the others turned away 
from the allurements of secular life and took the rigid vows 
of chastity, poverty, obedience, and readiness to go wherever 
in the world they might be sent. When the King of Por- 
tugal asked the Jesuits to send missionaries to his newly 
won possessions in India, Loyola ordered Xavier to respond. 
He started for Lisbon on a day's notice, and reached Goa, 
May 6, 1542. His seven years in India were characterized 
by indefatigable labors, and by such apparent success that 
he wrote: "The multitude of those who become converts 
to the faith of Jesus Christ is so great that my arms often 
grow weary with baptizing and I am unable to speak any 
longer; ... I have baptized a whole village in a day.'' 
But the kind of Christians that were made in this whole- 
sale fashion is indicated in his dejected report to Loyola 

611 



G12 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

in 1549: ''The experience that I have of these countries 
shows me clearly that there is no possible hope of perpetu- 
ating the Society here by means of the native Indians. 
Christianity itself will survive only so long as we remain 
and live here — we who have already come or those whom 
you shall send." 

In this despairing mood he met, during a visit to Malacca, 
a wandering Japanese whose name he gave as Anjiro, but 
whom later writers have called Yajiro, who, after killing a 
man in Japan, had fled in a Portuguese ship to Malacca, 
where he was baptized. From him Xavier learned much of 
Japan. ''If I went to Japan, would the people become 
Christians?" he asked. And Anjiro replied: "My people 
would not immediately become Christians; but they would 
first ask you a multitude of questions, weighing carefully 
your answers and your claims. Above all, they would 
observe whether your conduct agreed with youi* words. 
If you should satisfy them on these points by suitable re- 
plies to their inquiries and by a life above reproach — then, 
as soon as the matter w^as known and fully examined, the 
King (Daimyo),the nobles, and the educated people would 
become Christians. Six months would suffice; for the nation 
is one that always follows the guidance of reason." 

Flaming with zeal stimulated by this opinion, Xavier 
quickly sailed for Japan accompanied by two other Jesuits, 
Father Cosmo Torres and Brother Juan Fernandez, and by 
three Japanese, including Anjiro. After a voyage so stormy 
that the little sailing vessel w^as more than once in imminent 
danger of foundering, they arrived at Kagoshima in the 
province of Satsuma, August 15, 1549. It was a memora- 
ble day in the history of Japan and of Christianity when 
these heroic men landed, the first messengers of the gospel 
of Christ to a people who were destined to become one of 
the great nations of the earth. After twenty-seven months 
of incessant labor, Xavier sailed November 20, 1551, for 
India. After selecting more missionaries for Japan he de- 
parted for China, but died on the way at Chang-chuang on 
an island near Macao, November 27, 1552. Fernandez 



liOMAX CATHOLIC AND RUSSIAx\ MISSIONS 613 

and Torres remained in Japan till their deaths in 1567 and 

1570 respectively. 

The mission work thus begun was steadily pressed and the 
little band of pioneers was gradually enlarged by later ar- 
rivals. The Japanese appear to have welcomed the mis- 
sionaries with surprising cordiality. Xavier had written: 
"We have been received by the Governor (Capitan) of the 
city and by the Commandant (Alcayde) with much kind- 
ness and friendship, as we have also been by all the people." 

The novelty of the strangers' appearance attracted crowds. 
Converts were soon enrolled. The experiences of the mis- 
sionaries were varied, and for a score of years fair progress 
w^as made, although discouragements and occasional perils 
w^ere not wanting. The decade beginning with the year 

1571 was one of more rapid growth. Converts became 
numerous. The Jesuits made special effort to reach the 
higher classes and with no small degree of success. Among 
the Christians were such dignitaries as Takayama Yusho 
and his son and successor, Takayama Ukon, the feudal lords 
of Takatsuki, Konishi Yukinaga and Km-oda Yoshitaka, 
celebrated generals in the army, and a number of ci^dl 
officials of rank and influence. But in the reign of 
Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the later years of the sixteenth 
century, the tide turned. Various reasons for this change 
of attitude have been assigned. Defenders of the mis- 
sionaries dwell upon the resentment aroused by dissolute 
European traders, the wrath of Hideyoshi because Christian 
Japanese girls refused to pander to his licentious desires, 
and the growing suspicion that the priests represented the 
political ambitions of their governments; a suspicion to 
which their course lent some color, for they were active in 
court circles. It must be added that the zeal of the mis- 
sionaries was not always tempered by tactful consideration 
for the customs and sacred institutions of the people. They 
were relentless in their attacks upon Buddhist priests and 
worship, while their wholesale methods of baptism on merely 
superficial acquiescence in Christian formulas brought into 
the church multitudes of Japanese whose standards of con- 



614 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

duct were little, and in many instances not at all, better 
than those of the non-Christians about them. The Japa- 
nese Department of Education, in a History of the Empire of 
Japan issued in 1893, assigned the following reason for the 
reversal of popular attitude toward Christianity: "When 
Hideyoshi in the course of his campaign against Shimazu 
reached Hakata, the Christian priests showed such an arro- 
gant demeanor that Hideyoshi, enraged by their conduct, 
ordered that they should leave Japan by a certain day and 
prohibited the people from embracing Christianity." 

At any rate, the following edict was promulgated July 
25, 1587: 

" Having learned from our faithful counsellors that foreign religious 
teachers have come into our estates where they preach a law contrary 
to that of Japan, and that they have even had the audacity to destroy 
temples dedicated to our Kami and Hotoke, although this outrage 
merits the most extreme punishment, wishing nevertheless to show 
them mercy we order that under pain of death they quit Japan 
within twenty days. During that space of time no harm nor hurt 
will be done them; but at the expiration of that term, we order that 
if any of them be found in our states they shall be seized and punished 
as the greatest criminals. As for the Portuguese merchants, we per- 
mit them to enter our ports, there to continue their accustomed trade 
and to remain in our estates provided our affairs need this; but we 
forbid them to bring any foreign religious teachers into the country 
under the penalty of the confiscation of their ships and goods." 

The period of persecution which then began continued 
with varying degrees of intensity and vindictiveness through- 
out the reign of Hideyoshi and his successors, leyasu and 
Hidetada till, bj^ the year 1715, Christianity in Japan ap- 
peared to be almost exterminated. Many of the mission- 
aries were deported. Those who sought to remain were 
hunted down Hke wild beasts. Many of the Japanese 
Christians recanted, some because their profession of faith 
had been merely nominal, and others because their courage 
was not great enough to enable them to face the frightful 
ordeal with which a remorseless government confronted 
them. But multitudes were faithful to the end. They 



K0:\1AN CATHOLIC AND RUSSIAN MISSIONS 615 

were persecuted without mercy — stripped of their posses- 
sions, burned, beheaded, crucified, thrown from cHffs, and 
subjected to every other form of torture and death that 
fanatical ingenuity could devise. The histor}^ of Christian 
martyrdoms contains no more tragically sublime manifes- 
tations of constancy than those which Japan affords. 
When, December 9, 1603, an executioner went to the house 
of Simon Takeda after midnight with an order to execute 
him because he had refused an offer of life if he would re- 
cant, we read that he thanked the executioner, knelt and 
prayed before a picture of Christ, awakened his mother and 
his wife, arrayed himself in ceremonial robes, begged his 
family and servants to forgive him for any wrong that he 
had done them, and said to his wife: ^^The hour for separa- 
tion has come. I go before you and thus show the road by 
which you also should reach Paradise. I will pray to God 
for you. I hope that ere long you will follow in my foot- 
steps.'' 

He then calmly bared his neck for the executioner's 
sword. As his head fell on the mat, his mother laid her 
hand on it and exclaimed: '^Oh, my fortunate son, you 
have been deemed worthy to give your life for God's ser- 
vice. How blessed am I, sinful woman though I am, that 
I should be the mother of a martyr and that I can offer as 
a sacrifice this my only son, for whom during these many 
3^ears I have so lovingly cared." Both mother and wife 
were crucified before another night fell.^ 

It is difficult to ascertain just how many Christians there 
were in Japan during the various stages of Roman Catholic 
missionary' effort, or how many suffered martyrdom. Eccle- 
siastical statistics were not kept with such care as they 
now are. Doubtless, too, many records were lost or de- 
stroyed in the persecutions, while the Roman Catholic cus- 
tom of counting all persons who have been baptized in in- 
fancy as well as in later years does not always make the 
reported numbers indicative of actual strength. Certain 

^For a detailed account of these persecutions, see Otis Gary's History of 
Christianity in Japan, Vol. I, pp. 98-257. 



616 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

it iS; however, that the missionaries had a large following in 
Japan in the seventeenth century, and that several thousand 
Christians were executed for their faith or died as the result 
of the hardships which the pei-secutions involved. For 
more than a centuiy Christianity in Japan almost disap- 
peared. A few believers remained, worshipping in out-of- 
the-way places or hiding from hostile eyes. Occasionally, 
little groups gathered and sometimes friendly neighbors 
let them live in peace. Now and then a daring priest went 
more or less furtively among them, giving counsel and en- 
couragement. But enmity of Christianity was deeply 
rooted among officials and common people. Suspected 
Japanese were compelled to trample upon the cross or the 
image of the Virgin Mary. Edicts and sign-boards forbade 
Christian profession or teaching under dire penalties. One 
tablet bore the oft-quoted inscription: '^So long as the sun 
warms the earth, let no Christian be so bold as to come to 
Japan; and let aU know that if the King of Spain, or the 
Christians' God, or the great God of all violate this com- 
mand, he shall pay for it with his head," 

The Roman Catholic Church in Europe, however, never 
abandoned its purpose to reopen mission work in Japan, 
and shortly after the promulgation of the treaty of 1854 
between Japan and the United States, active preparations 
were made. In 1856, M. Furet and M. Mounicou, after 
several fruitless efforts, managed to get to Hakodate on a 
French war-vessel, and after a stay of four days went to 
the Loochoo Islands, where a struggling mission had been 
maintained for some years as a base from which Japan 
might again be entered. In 1859 the long-hoped-for day 
dawned. M. Girard landed at Yedo September 6, and two 
months later M. Mermet arrived in Hakodate. M. Mou- 
nicou came to Yokohama from Loochoo in 1861. Mission 
work was vigorously resumed. One by one new mission- 
aries arrived. Caution was still necessary, and in 1867 
persecution again broke out. There were more deporta- 
tions, imprisonments, sufferings, and deaths. But in March, 
1872, Monsignor Petitjean wrote to a priest in Hong Kong 



ROMAN CATHOLIC AND RUSSIAN MISSIONS 617 

to cable the followiiig message to the Paris headquarters 
of the Society: ^'Edicts against Christians removed. 
Prisoners freed. Inform Rome, Propagation of Faith, 
Holy Infancy. Need immediately fifteen missionaries." 

At that time the missionaries definitely knew of 1 5,000 
Christians, and they believed that there were many others 
who secretly held to the Christian faith but had not dared 
to identify themselves with it. 

Since then progress has been stead3\ By 1887 the Japan 
Weekly Mail could speak of the mission as "a large and 
powerful mission, numbering nearly sixty fathers, and over 
forty sisters of charity.'' Thirty years later the number 
of foreigners on the staff had risen to 352, with 179 Japanese 
workers, 270 churches, and 76,134 members. Seminaries, 
convents, monasteries, schools, creches, orphanages, hos- 
pitals, and leper asylums testify to the breadth and power 
of the movement. 

The Japanese have been more distrustful of the Roman 
Catholic missionaries than of the Protestants. This is 
partly because the close affiliation of the priests with their 
home governments and their diplomatic representatives 
in Japan has aroused suspicion of political aims, and partly 
because the Roman Catholic polity places the seat of au- 
thority in Rome, and, as the Report of the Societe des Mis- 
sions Etrangeres for 1906 frankly says: "The Japanese na- 
tional pride opposes itself to permitting that a foreigner 
should, apart from the Emperor, have control over them.'' 
Nevertheless, the Roman Catholic Church in Japan is a 
real force in the countr}^, and it can point to a long line of 
devoted workers and an impressive roll of martyrs. Some 
of its teachings and methods are at a far remove from 
those which represent my own views. Many of its priests 
have been narrow, intolerant, and arrogant. They have 
made serious blunders, and they cannot be freed from blame 
for a course of conduct which had something to do with 
turning an initial welcome into bitter resentment, and 
which, while not of itself causing persecution, at least 
broadened its scope and intensified its bitterness. 



018 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

But while candor compels this stricture, candor also 
compels hearty recognition of courage, persistence, and 
personal character. Most of the foreign bishops and priests 
have been, and still are, French, and of a distinctly higher 
type than the Spanish priests in the Philippine and South 
American missions. The fair-minded Protestant who writes 
of them may, if I may borrow an illustration, treat their 
defects as an artist should treat the wart on CromwelFs 
face. He must paint it in, but he need not make it un- 
necessarily large, nor write underneath his picture: "Please 
note especially the wart." 

The story of the Greek Orthodox Mission of the Russian 
Church is a shorter one, for it deals with a more limited 
work and for a briefer period, since it dates only from 1861. 
But it forms a part of the Christian movement in Japan 
which is of no small importance. The mission centred 
about and was indeed incarnated in an extraordinary per- 
sonaHty — the great Archbishop Nicolai, one of the modem 
apostles of God whom all communions gladly recognize. 
When a young man of twenty-four in Petrograd, he was 
chosen by the Holy Synod as chaplain of the Russian con- 
sulate at Hakodate, Japan. He eagerly accepted the ap- 
pointment, and on his ordination took the name Nicolai 
instead of Ivan Kasatkin, by which he had been hitherto 
known. Arriving at Hakodate in June, 1861, he was de- 
lighted to find his official duties so light that he had time 
to study the Japanese language, with a view to preaching 
to the people of the city. He studied with Joseph Neesima 
for a month, and after that with various teachers until he 
could speak in the native tongue. Opposition to Christi- 
anity was strong, and progress was beset with difficulties 
and at times danger. But in April, 1868, he conducted 
with tender solemnity a service in his own rooms, in which 
he administered the rite of baptism to three Japanese — 
Sawabe, Sakai, and Urano. The services had to be held in 
secret, and the converts had to leave town immediately to 
escape punishment. Sawabe soon afterward brought tw^o 
other Japanese, Kannari and Arai, to Pere Nicolai, as he 



ROMAN CATHOLIC AND RUSSIAN MISSIONS 619 

was now called. Tlie good priest now became convinced 
that the time had come to give his whole time to work 
among the Japanese. He appHed for a furlough and re- 
turned to Russia in 1870 to interest the Holy Synod, and 
to secure financial support for a mission. He was offered 
the bishopric of Peking, but attractive as the offer was he 
declined it, saying that he had consecrated his life to Japan. 
Thereupon his plans were approved ; he was made an archi- 
mandrite; money was raised for his work, and he started 
back to Japan, arriving at Hakodate in February, 1871. 

The work broadened. Converts carried the gospel to 
other places, Sendai among others. In Jsimary, 1872, 
Nicolai removed to Tokyo, and there began the mission 
which afterward became so famous. Some of the con- 
verts were imprisoned and harshly treated, but they sturdily 
clung to their faith. The missionaiy himself was sus- 
pected of being a spy, and was hampered in many ways; 
but nothing could daunt him. By 1883 he could report 
5 foreign priests and teachers, 120 Japanese evangehsts, of 
whom 11 were ordained priests, 148 organized churches, 
and a Christian constituency, including children, of 8,863. 

The poKtical difficulties which developed between Japan 
and Russia in the closing years of the century and the 
opening years of the twentieth affected, to some extent, 
the position of the mission in the pubHc mind as compared 
with the popular attitude toward the Protestant missions. 
Christianity in all its fonns was still unpopular, although 
active opposition was lessening. But the Greek Orthodox 
Church, being the State Church of Russia, and as such 
closely identified with its government, could not escape the 
distrust with which aU Russian activities were regarded. 
One of the priests issued a statement in 1903, in which he 
said: "From the present political situation of Japan and 
Russia, since the Japanese Orthodox Church is aided by 
the Russian Missionary Society, some are led to beUeve 
that the church is necessarily Russianized and given to 
Russian form_s." 

He proceeded to explain that this was a misapprehen- 



620 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

sion, but the Japanese were not easily convinced. It is 
immensely to the credit of both missionaries and Japanese 
that; during all the months of growing suspicion and irri- 
tation between the two countries^ and the outburst of the 
storm of war in 1904, the work of the mission was main- 
tained, with some difficulty; indeed; but without disaster. 
The Russian missionaries were neither deported nor in- 
terned; but were allowed to go on with their duties. This 
happy result was due, in part; to the remarkable tact and 
wisdom of Pere Nicolai; now a bishop, in scrupulously ob- 
serving the proprieties of a very delicate situation; avoiding 
unneutral words and actS; and strictly confining himself 
and his priests to the regular duties of a Christian mission. 
And it was also due to the equally remarkable fairness and 
good sense of the Japanese in recognizing the fact that mis- 
sionary work was conducted from motives quite distinct 
from the objectives of the war; and that it was not for the 
benefit of Russia but for the direct benefit of Japan. As 
the war grew in magnitude and intensity; and the fate of 
Japan trembled in the balance; the bishop wrote: ^^From 
our hearts we give thanks and praise God that through His 
mercy the Church remains in peace unmolested; and that 
its members still maintain their good faith; each worker 
doing his duty faithfully. We also give thanks to the Japa- 
nese Government for its kind protection. From the be- 
ginning of this war; the government declared that religion 
and politics or war should not be confounded; that no one 
should be hindered in religious rites or faith. As you know, 
this declaration has been kept.'' 

A wide field of effort developed in the campS; in which 
73,000 Russian prisoners were confined. The bishop as- 
signed all he could spare of his Japanese priests and evangel- 
ists; 23 of whom could speak the Russian language; to do 
Christian work among these men; and to distribute copies 
of the four Gospels and religious tracts and books. The 
bishop himself devoted much of his time to literary work, 
writing articles and pamphlets, editing periodicals; and re- 
vising his translation of the New Testament. He was made 



ROMAN CATHOLIC AND RUSSIAN MISSIONS 621 

an archbishop in 1906, and Februaiy 16, 1912, he died at 
the age of seventy-six, honored and loved not only by his 
own communion, but by foreigners and Japanese of all 
faiths. He was succeeded by Bishop Sergie. The last 
report of the mission gives 267 churches with 36,265 mem- 
bers, only one foreign missionary, 159 Japanese workers, 
yen 4,656 received from the Society in Russia, and yen 
13,036 from Japanese sources — an interesting and sug- 
gestive commentary upon the success of the mission in 
developing and domesticating the work with a compara- 
tively small proportion of foreigners to superintend it. 

The Greek Cathohc Church can hardly be said to have a 
present mission work in Korea, since it does Httle outside 
of the Russian Consulate in Seoul, where the services are 
held. The report in 1918 gives a total baptized member- 
ship of only 630. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 
PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN JAPAN 

The first Protestant servdce of which we have any record 
was conducted by that fine Christian layman and American 
diplomat, Townsend Harris. The following entry appears 
in his diary: '^Sunday, December 6, 1857. This is the 
second Sunday in Advent; assisted by Mr. Heusken, I 
read the full service in an audible voice, and with the paper 
doors of the houses here our voices could be heard in every 
part of the building. This was, beyond doubt, the first 
time that the English version of the Bible or the American 
Protestant Episcopal service was ever repeated in this 
city. Two hundred and thirty years ago a law was pro- 
mulgated in Japan mflicting death on any one who should 
use any of the rites of the Christian religion. That law is 
still unrepealed.'^ 

This service, of course, was for his own household and 
official staff. The foimdations of Protestant missionary 
work for the Japanese were laid soon afterward by a re- 
markable group of men. The Reverend John Liggins, of the 
American Protestant Episcopal Church, who arrived May 2, 
1859; the Reverend Channing N. WilUams, of the same 
church, who joined him two months later; James C. Hep- 
bum, M.D., of the American Presbyterian Church, who 
arrived October 18 of that year; the Reverend Guido S. 
Verbeck, the Reverend Samuel R. Bro\Mi, and D. B. Sim- 
mons, M.D., of the Dutch Reformed Church, who landed 
in November — these were men of high type, characterized 
by breadth of view, intellectual ability, and force of char- 
acter. Four of them, WilHams, Hepburn, Verbeck, and 
Brown, acquired large influence over the Japanese and an 
international reputation as Christian statesmen. Williams 
attained fame as a bishop of large administrative qualities. 

622 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN JAPAN 623 

Hepburn was a physician, scholar, author, and translator, 
of whom The Japan Mail editorially said that he was '*a 
man whose name will be remembered with respect and 
affection as long as Yokohama has annals — a man of beauty 
of character, untiring charity, absolute self -negation, steady 
zeal in the cause of eveiy thing good, constituting a picture 
which could not fail to appeal to the Japanese people/' 
On his ninetieth birthday, in 1905, the Emperor of Japan, 
although burdened with the anxieties incident to a decisive 
battle in the war with Russia, remembered that devoted 
missionary and conferred upon him the Imperial Order of 
the Rising Sun in recognition of his distinguished services 
to Japan. Brown's great work as an educator led William 
ElHot Griffis to write his biography under the title: A 
Maker of the New Orient. Verbeck was teacher, writer, 
statesman, and confidential adviser of the Japanese Govern- 
ment, which counselled with him and trusted him as it has 
trusted no other man from the West. 

The beginnings of mission work were so humble and be- 
set by such difficulties that less dauntless men would have 
been discouraged. The missionaries were regarded with 
suspicion and disHke, their motives were misunderstood, 
and their purpose was misrepresented. Not until March, 
1860, ten months after the first arrivals, could any Japanese 
be persuaded to teach them the language; and then the 
only one who could be secured was a government spy, and 
the only pupils were a few little boys whose parents wanted 
them to learn EngHsh. Nearly five years passed before a 
convert was baptized, in November, 1864. But those 
early years were spent in quiet, patient study, winning the 
good-will of the people by kindly, ChristHke lives, and lay- 
ing broad and deep foundations for coming years in lan- 
guage helps and in translations of portions of the Bible and 
of Christian books and tracts. Gradually the Japanese 
began to understand these faithful workers, and to give 
their confidence to them. . Gradually, too, the truths which 
they taught found lodgment in the hearts of earnest people. 

The lot of the first Christians was hard. It is easy to 



624 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EASr 

confess Christ in a land where Christianity is the popular 
religion; where parents pray for one^s conversion, and where 
church membership not only involves no real sacrifice but 
often gives increased prestige in the community. The first 
converts in Japan had to break with their relatives and lose 
their friends. They were ostracized by society, and per- 
secuted by the religious leaders of the dominant faiths. 
The shopkeeper found that his customers forsook him. 
The son was disowned by his family. The ambitious young 
man was debarred from office. A high type of courage was 
required to face a hostile world, to stand before the whole 
business, social, and religious order and, like Martin Luther, 
fling out the sublime challenge : "Here I stand. God help 
me; I can do no other." In a literal sense that we in 
America wot not of, these Asiatic Christians took up the 
Cross to follow Him. There have been martyrs in these 
Eastern lands, men and w^omen who counted not their 
lives dear unto themselves for conscience sake. 

The missionaries suffered less than the native converts, 
but their position was far from comfortable during this 
period. An illustration of the attitude of many Japanese 
appeared in a letter sent from Kyoto in 1884, addressed 
"To the four American Barbarians — Davis, Gordon, 
Learned and Greene," and including these sentences: 
"You have come from a far country with the evil religion 
of Christ and as slaves of the robber Neesima. . . . Those 
who brought Buddhism to Japan in ancient times were 
killed; but we do not wish to defile the soil of Japan with 
your abominable blood. Hence take your families and go 
quickly." 

This was rather a belated manifestation of hostility, for 
the tide of national favor suddenly turned. The Japanese 
became eager to learn Western methods, and missionaries 
became popular almost over night, not because of their 
rehgious character, but because they were the most available 
foreigners who could tell the Japanese about European and 
American history, education, government, machinery, bank- 
ing, navigation, manufacturing, and military organization. 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN JAPAN 625 

Mission schools were crowded. Churches doubled and 
trebled their membership. The advice of missionaries was 
sought by prominent Japanese, and they and other resident 
foreigners were treated with distinguished consideration. 
Christianity gained 6,000 coromunicants in 1889, and so 
promising were the signs of continued growth that it began 
to look as if Christianity might become the religion of Japan 
within a generation. 

The Japanese had no notion of allowing aliens to gain 
control of their country's industrial life. As soon as West- 
em methods were understood, suspicion and jealousy re- 
vived, and after 1889 the tide of national favor ebbed as sud- 
denly and violently as it had risen. Life in Japan was not 
pleasant for foreigners during these years. They were 
seldom subjected to violence, but they were snubbed and 
elbowed aside on every hand. Mission schools dwindled. 
Chapel congregations fell off, and new converts became so 
scarce that they hardly more than filled the vacancies 
caused by death and dismissal. " The night of the nineties,' ' 
the missionaries called this gloomy period. Some came to 
the conclusion that the opportunity for mission work in 
Japan had passed, and a few resigned and went home. 

The change in pubHc sentiment, like the one that pre- 
ceded it, was not primarily due to the fact that they were 
missionaries, but to the fact that they were foreigners. 
They shared the foreign and anti-foreign reactions of this 
period that we have mentioned in a former chapter, and 
that affected European and American business men in Japan 
quite as seriously as they affected missionary work. Many 
foreigners who had been employed by the Japanese were 
dismissed. Others who were engaged in trade saw their 
business go to pieces, and their curses were both loud and 
deep. 

A contributory cause, however, lay in the reports of Japa- 
nese who had gone to Europe and America to study the 
institutions and methods of Western lands, and to learn 
the secret of their ascendancy. They had supposed that 
Christianity was the religion of all the modem progressive 



026 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

nations and that, if Japan were to take her place as an 
equal among them, she must adopt their religion as well as 
their military, naval, industrial, and educational systems. 
They were impressed by a remark which Bismarck was re- 
ported to have made, that, if Japan expected to be regarded 
as a world-power of the first rank, she must become Chris- 
tian. There was actually some talk for a time of making 
Christianity the national religion, and Mr. William T. Ellis 
says that when he was in Tokyo he was told by a govern- 
ment official, whose '^ utterance upon any governmental 
question would not go imheeded in t^he world's capitals, 
that it had been the intention to make the Crown Prince 
a Christian, so that the next Emperor would be counted 
among the Christian rulers of the earth." 

Then the Japanese heard with surprise that Western 
nations were only partially Christian; that the people of 
the United States carefully separated church and state; 
that the French and Italian Governments were hostile to 
the church; that, while Great Britain and Germany had 
established churches, a large part of the population in both 
countries was outside of them; and that the great cities in 
all of these lands reeked with immorality, intemperance, 
Sunday desecration, and other forms of irreligion. The 
inquiring Japanese went back to tell their countrymen that 
Western nations were not really Christian; that their power 
was due to their science, inventions, discoveries, and manu- 
factures instead of to their religion; that the Japanese 
could now handle the former themselves; that Christianity 
could be left out of account as a factor in the material pro- 
gramme; and that Japan's position in the world would be 
determined by her military and industrial eflSciency rather 
than by her reHgion. 

This anti-foreign reaction culminated ia 1896, and by 
the opening of the twentieth century its force had been 
spent. By that time the Japanese had begun to feel more 
sure of themselves, and their jealousy and dislike of foreign- 
ers considerably abated. Since then, the attitude of the 
Japanese toward foreigners in both business and mission- 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN JAPAN 627 

ary life has been one of personal kindness and good-natured 
recognition, as long as the foreigners have kept their proper 
place and recognized the fact that they are not superior 
beings, but residents or visitors among a people who pro- 
pose to manage their own affairs, and who gladly welcome 
co-operation but sternly resent dictation or patronage. 
The Japanese now accept most cordially the assistance 
which the missionaries can give. They have begun to un- 
derstand that the best elements in the life of the enlightened 
and progressive nations of the world are Christian; that 
the teachings of the Founder of Christianity are pure and 
ennobling; that missionaries have come to communicate 
these teachings; and that they should not be judged by 
those of their countrymen who openly disregard them. 

The attitude of the government toward Christianity is 
friendly. Numerous evidences of this are cited in other 
chapters. It is true that the Emperor, the Elder States- 
men, and a large majority of officials of all grades are not 
Christians, and that so far as they are indifferent to Bud- 
dhism their indifference tends toward agnosticism rather 
than toward Christianity. Nevertheless, the governmental 
policy is one of fairness to all faiths. Article XXVIII of 
the Constitution provides that "Japanese subjects shall, 
within limits not prejudicial to peace and order, and not 
antagonistic to their duties as subjects, enjoy freedom of 
religious belief." 

Count Katsura, then Prime Minister, said in 1904: 
"Japan stands for religious freedom. This is a principle 
embodied in her Constitution, and her practice is in accord- 
ance with that principle. A man may be a Buddhist, a 
Christian, or even a Jew, without suffering for it. . . . 
There are Christian churches in every large city and in 
almost eveiy town in Japan; and they all have complete 
freedom to teach and worship in accordance with their 
own convictions. These churches send out men to extend 
the influence of Christianity from one end of the country 
to the other as freely as such a thing might be done in the 
United States, and without attracting much if any more 



028 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

attention. There are numerous Christian newspapers and 
magazines which obtain their Heenses precisely as other 
newspapers and magazines and as a matter of course. 
Chiistian schools, some of them conducted by foreigners 
and some by Japanese, are found eveiywhere, and recently 
an ordinance has been issued by the Department of Educa- 
tion under which Christian schools of a certain grade are 
able to obtain all the privileges granted to government 
schools of the same grade. There are few things which are 
a better proof of the recognition of rights than the right to 
hold property. In many cases, associations composed of 
foreign missionaries permanently residing in Japan have 
been incorporated by the Department of Home Affairs. 
These associations are allowed to 'own and manage land, 
buildings and other property for the extension of Christi- 
anity, the carrying on of Christian education, and the per- 
formance of works of charity and benevolence.^ It should 
be added also that they are incorporated under the article 
in the Civil Code which provides for the incorporation of 
associations founded for 'purposes beneficial to the public'; 
and as 'their object is not to make a profit out of the con- 
duct of their business,' no taxes are levied on their incomes. 
. . . Christian literature has entrance into the military and 
naval hospitals, and a relatively large number of the trained 
nurses employed in them are Christian women." ^ 

Indeed, the government has virtually recognized Chris- 
tianity as one of the rehgions of the Em.pire. In the war 
with Russia the War Department authorized the appoint- 
ment of chaplains for the armies in Manchuria. The mis- 
sionaries respectfully asked that Christian ministers as 
well as Buddhist and Shinto priests be appointed. The 
officers who had the power of selection were not disposed 
to accede to the request; but when it was presented to 
the Imperial Cabinet through the good offices of Sir Claude 
Macdonald, the British Ambassador, and Count Inouye, 
the influential Japanese statesman, that body promptly 
sanctioned the appointment of six British and American 

^ Interview with the Reverend William Imbrie, D.D. 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN JAPAN 629 

missionaries and six Japanese Christians as chaplains with 
the transport and commissariat privileges accorded to other 
chaplains. The agents of the Bible Societies received 
special permission to distribute copies of the Bible among 
the men of the army and navy, and a Vice-Admiral 
promised to send to every ship in the navy the Bibles 
and other religious reading that the agents might wish to 
send. 

When, early in 1912, the Vice-Minister of Home x\ffairs 
for Japan, Mr. Tokonami, called a conference of the re- 
ligious leaders of the Empire "for the upholding of morality 
and the betterment of social conditions, ^^ he invited Chris- 
tians, Buddhists, and Shintoists alike to send representatives. 
Som.e of the missionaries were rather doubtful of the wisdom 
of accepting the invitation, fearing that acceptance might 
be construed as placing Christianity on a level with Bud- 
dhism and Shintoism, as if all three were simply different 
sects of a common reHgion. They knew, too, that govern- 
mental recognition in Japan involves a certain degree of 
relationship to and supervision by the government, and 
they believed that Christianity could best maintain its 
true character if it stood quite free from all political affilia- 
tions. Other missionaries and the Japanese Christians took 
a more favorable view, and the conference was attended b}^ 
thirteen Shintoists, fifty Buddhists, and seven Japanese 
Christians — one each of the Baptist, Methodist, Presby- 
terian, Congregational, Episcopal, Roman CathoHc, and 
Greek CathoHc communions. The omission of Confuci- 
anism was significant as showing that it is not regarded as 
one of the separate religions of Japan, its ethics and ancestor- 
worship finding expression in other ways. The government 
was represented by four members of the Cabinet and sev- 
eral vice-ministers and bureau chiefs. The conference 
continued in session four days. Its sessions were private, 
but one can imagine the decorum with which the Japanese 
would conduct the proceedings, in spite of the fact that the 
convictions of the delegates were as varied as their robes — 
the Shintoists white and gray; the Buddhists red, yellow, 



630 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

and purple; and the Christians black. Mr. Tokonami 
sanctioned a public statement which included the following: 

"1. The primary intention in holding the conference is to direct 
attention to reHgion as a necessary means to the highest spiritual and 
moral welfare of both the individual and the nation. For a number 
of years this matter has not been given the importance that properly 
belongs to it, and the primary purpose of the conference is to reassert 
that importance. 

**2. No attempt is intended to unite the adherents of the several 
religions in one body, still less to establish a new religion. Shintoism, 
Buddhism and Christianity are all religions; but in certain important 
particulars each differs from the others and the religious convictions 
of the adherents of each should be respected without interference. 
It may, however, be confidently presumed that Shintoists, Buddhists 
and Christians alike will cordially recognize a responsibility to act 
as fellow-laborers for the advancement of the spiritual and moral 
interests of the nation to the utmost of their ability. 

"3. Shintoism and Buddhism have long had a recognized place as 
religions of the Japanese people. Christianity should also be ac- 
corded a similar place." 

Opinions as to the value of the conference differed after 
as well as before it. Some missionaries deplored it. Others 
went so far as to declare that 'Hhe conference is the most 
important event for Christianity since the edict boards 
against Christianity were removed over a generation ago." 
Perhaps the prevailing opinion was expressed by Professor 
A. K. Reischauer of the Meiji Gakuin (College), Tokyo, 
when he wrote: ^'We have in the statement of the Vice- 
Minister a recognition of the great importance of religion 
as a means to the highest spiritual and moral welfare of 
both the individual and the nation. This recognition is in 
sharp contrast with the views held by the great majority 
of Japanese statesmen during the past two or three decades. 
How widely this view of the Vice-Minister is held in the 
official world it is hard to say ; but it is certainly gratifying 
that a man as influential as Mr. Tokonami should give ex- 
pression to such opinions. Now, the main feature of Mr. 
Tokonami ^s scheme is that it recognizes two things about 
Christianity. One of these is that, though the Constitution 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN JAPAN 631 

of Japan recognizes the principle of religious liberty, Chris- 
tianity has not had a fair chance in this land; the other 
point is that Christianity is worthy to be recognized as a 
religion which can contribute something to Japan's welfare." 

It would be easy to cite other evidences of friendly feel- 
ing toward Christianity. Governors and mayors often 
accept invitations to address annual meetings of religious 
bodies. At the coronation of the present Emperor, several 
Christians were included in the list of Japanese who re- 
ceived honors; some of them, Hke the Reverend Doctor 
Motoda, Headmaster of St. Paul's College, Tokyo, and 
Miss Ume Tsuda, Principal of a school for girls, being so 
prominent as Christian workers that their selection implied 
an approval of their work. Never before had Christians 
been so honored by the throne. 

Christian workers who are known to be favorably dis- 
posed toward the government receive many courtesies. 
An American missionary, the Reverend Doctor George P. 
Pierson, writes: "I have to report the placing of forty-one 
railway stations at our disposal for addresses, the oflScial 
assembling of audiences, and a free pass on the line when 
engaged in this particular work. The Railway Depart- 
ment of the Government has for a long time felt the need 
of moral instruction for its employees. Buddhist and 
Shinto priests have had the privilege of holding meetings 
at the stations, and latterly Christian speakers have not 
only been allowed but even invited. When I wish to speak 
at a station or two, I ask our local station-master the day 
before to make arrangements. He telephones down the 
line, fixes the hour, and next day stands ready to furnish 
me with a pass. When I reach the station, I find the main 
waiting-room arranged like a chapel, with table, glass of 
water, and sometimes a vase of flowers. The seats are oc- 
cupied by the station-master, his assistant, the ticket man, 
the telegraph men, the baggage men, and in almost every 
case by some of the women and children from families of 
the men, as well as by people from the stores near by. 
The station-master asks me into his ofiice, gives tea, and 



632 THE MASTERY OF THE 1 AK EAST 

sometimes oflfers lunch. I can leave a package of books in 
the men's room, and send them papers regularly thereafter/' 

For a score of years, Christian work has steadily pro- 
gressed, and the Japanese churches have made sohd gains. 
At the Semi-Centennial of Protestant Missions in Tokyo, 
the Reverend Doctor William Imbrie was able to say: 
^' Fifty years ago, notice boards were standing on the high- 
ways declaring Christianity a forbidden rehgion; to-day 
these same notice boards are seen standing in the Museum 
in Tokyo as things of historical interest. Less than fifty 
years ago, the Christian Scriptures could be printed only 
in secret; to-day Bible Societies scatter them far and wide 
without let or hindrance. Even forty years ago, there was 
not an organized church in all Japan; to-day there are 
Synods and Conferences and Associations, with congrega- 
tions dotting the Empire from the Hokkaido to Formosa. 
To-day, Christians from the north and south and east and 
west gather together in the capital to celebrate the Semi- 
Centennial of the planting of Protestant Christianity in 
Japan, and men of high position in the nation cordially 
recognize the fact that Christianity in Japan has won for 
itself a place worthy of recognition." 

Christianity has made great strides in Japan since these 
words were spoken. A three-year national evangeHstic 
campaign, inaugurated by a joint committee of Protestant 
churches and missions in 1913, resulted in 4,788 meetings, 
attended by 777,119 persons, of whom 27,350 professed 
conversion. Of the meetings in Kobe, the Reverend H. P. 
Jones wrote that the ''first night the church, which seats 
900, was filled and many were turned away. The next night 
a theatre seating 2,000 was crowded to the doors, and again 
many were turned away. Mr. Ando, the lay leader of the 
temperance movement in Japan, spoke for an hour. Then 
for another hour that packed house quietly listened to Doctor 
Ebina of Tokyo. The next day the capacious Y. M. C. A. 
building was filled to the Hmit morning, afternoon and 
evening. In a club house near by a meeting for children 
was attended by 3,500. Monday night, the people literally 



1 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN JAPAN 0.^3 

jammed the largest theatre, and a sign requested Chris- 
tians not to come into the building so that non-Christians 
could have the seats. The police ordered the doors closed, 
pronouncing the house full, but people kept coming for 
more than an hour demanding entrance."^ 

Protestant Christianity in Japan is now represented by 
1,079 organized churches, 90,172 adult communicants, a 
constituency (including children and enrolled catechumens) 
of 123,222; 2,861 Japanese workers, 174 kindergartens, 62 
elementary schools, 56 middle schools, 6 normal schools, 
14 colleges, 28 theological and Bible schools, 16 industrial 
training-schools, 9 hospitals, 9 orphanages, an ex-prisoners' 
home and school, and 2 day-nurseries. Japanese Christians 
contributed for the support of this work during the year in 
question 577,560 yen, in addition to the sums sent by the 
mission boards in Great Britain and North America. 
Roman Catholics report 270 churches, with 76,134 members, 
and Russian Greek Catholics 267 churches, wdth 36,265, 
swelhng Christianity's total in Japan to 235,621. These 
figures, which will be exceeded by the next report, do not 
include Korea, whose figures I give in another chapter. 
Japanese churches are not only alert and aggressive in 
their plans and work at home, but they have organized 
missionary societies to foUow their countrymen who have 
emigrated to Korea, China, and Formosa. The Kumiai 
churches in particular have undertaken an active work in 
Korea, sending over a considerable number of ministers 
and evangehsts, and developing churches in several cities. 
Their efforts are encouraged by the government because 
they are deemed helpful in strengthening Japanese influ- 
ence in Korea, and in promoting the national policy of 
assimilation. 

The influence of Christianity is far greater than ofiicial 
reports can indicate. In most countries Christianity made 
its first converts among the lower strata of society; but in 
Japan it has won its greatest successes among the Samurai, 
or knightly class, which has furnished the majority of the 

^ Article in The Missionary Review of the World, January, 1917. 



(iM THK MASTERY OF T^.H FAR EAST 

army and naw officers; journalists^ legislators, educators, 
and leading men generally of the new Japan. While ap- 
proximately one person in ever}^ thousand of the popula- 
tion is a Christian, one in ever}^ hundred of the educated 
classes is a Christian. The personnel of the churches in 
Japan probably averages higher in intelHgence and social 
position than in any other land; though of course many 
exceptions could be made to such a generalization. The 
proportion of Christians is noticeably high among editors 
and school-teachers. At the time of my second visit to 
Japan, there were said to be scores of Christian editors 
in Tokyo alone, and fourteen members of the Imperial 
Diet were of the same faith. Christians are also to be 
found among the officers of the army and navy, and the 
ranks of business and professional men of high standing. 
Joseph Hardy Neesima, founder of the Doshisha College 
in Kyoto; Yoitsu Honda, first Bishop of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in Japan; Kenkichi Kataoka, formerly 
President of the Lower House of the Imperial Diet ; Tasuku 
Harada, President of the Doshisha; Kajinosuke Ibuka, 
President of the Meiji Gakuin in Tokyo ; Masahisa Uemura, 
theologian, editor, and preacher of Tokj^o — these are names 
of which the church in any land might well be proud, men 
of the fu-st order of character and ability. ^^One would 
indeed be very courageous,^' says Tyler Dennett, ^'as well 
as something else, to suggest in Japan to Professor Nitobe 
of the Imperial University, Senator Suroku Ebara of the 
House of Peers, Doctor Ukita, editor of the Taiyo; Taku- 
taro Sakai of the Mitsui Bank, Mr. Kobayashi, the tooth- 
powder man; Mr. Ohara, the millionaire silk manufacturer 
of Kurashiki; Mr. Hatano of the Ayabe Silk Filatures; 
Madame Yajima and Miss Tsuda, both of whom were re- 
cently decorated by the Emperor; Madame Hirooka, 
daughter of the Mitsui family, and one of the richest women 
in Japan, that they were 'rice Christians.'" ^ When the 
Reverend Doctor Henry Sloane Coffin of New York at- 
tended a Sunday service in Doctor Uemura's church in 

^ Article in Asia, January, 1918. 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN JAPAN (3o3 

Tokyo, he found that the office-bearers of the congi'egation 
included the Vice-Mayor of the city, a professor in the 
Imperial University, an editor of one of the principal daily 
newspapers, the head of the Government Bureau of Agri- 
culture, a general in the army, a prominent broker and 
banker, and a judge of the Court of Appeals. 

Very earnest many of the Japanese Christians are. An 
army officer, who was sent to open a new post at Kyodo on 
the Antung-Mukden Railway in Manchuria, where he had 
3,000 Japanese laborers imder his command for construc- 
tion work, made a neat Httle church the first building to be 
erected, he and his equally devoted Chiistian wife and a 
few other Japanese Christians paying for it themselves. 
One may now find quite a niunber of Japanese churches in 
Korea and Manchiu"ia which have been developed without 
foreign assistance, and whose members evidence the gen- 
uineness of theu' faith by their works. 

We shall long remember the first Japanese Christian whom 
we met after our arrival in Japan — Kawai Suye Kichi, of 
the household of the Reverend and Mrs. Theodore MacNair, 
in Tokyo. Reared among the mountains of Shinshui, he 
had earned a living by transporting loads over the pass by 
which multitudes of pilgrims journeyed to the sacred places 
beyond. The railroad destroyed his business, but one day 
it brought to his mountain home the tired missionary 
family, seeking rest. Ever intent upon their Father's 
business, the}^ failed not to speak of Him. Kawai Suye 
Kichi heard and beheved. When the missionaries returned 
to Tokyo, he begged to be allowed to go with them that he 
might be more fully instructed. In due time he was bap- 
tized. A plain man past middle age, he grew mighty in 
prayer and in the Scriptures, and expounded the way of 
life to many in his former village, which he regularly visited. 
We learned that the day before we landed this brother at 
morning prayers had made special intercession for us, sim- 
ply but earnestly asking God to be with us during all our 
visit, and to make us a ^^ witness for Jesus Christ '^ wherever 
we went. As we were beginning our tour of Asia, and were 



036 'J'lIE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

then without ex|3erience in speaking through an inter- 
preter to strangers of a different race and modes of thought, 
the knowledge of such a prayer and the affectionate welcome 
of that humble child of God w^armed our hearts, and made 
our speaking to Japanese congregations seem much easier. 

A fine type of Christian faith was illustrated shortly after 
an explosion on a Japanese battleship some years ago. 
The son of a Vice- Admiral was involved in the wreckage. 
\\Tiile search was being made for the bodies, many promi- 
nent Japanese called upon the mother to offer their con- 
dolence. She told them that she felt the need of the con- 
solations of the Christian religion in that time of anxiety, 
and she called upon her Japanese pastor to read the Scrip- 
tures and to offer prayer. He was a young man who had 
been recently graduated from the Theological Seminary. 
It was a difficult position for him; but with tact and fidelity 
he opened the New Testament, read suitable passages, and 
then earnestly prayed, wMe Japanese in high official posi- 
tion, some of whom had never heard such words before, 
bowed with the anxious mother. Later, the body of the 
son was foimd. The stricken parents announced that the 
public funeral would be followed by a Christian service, and 
that any of their friends who wished to come would be 
welcome. A distinguished company assembled. The young 
Japanese again spoke, impressively dwelling upon the Chris- 
tian meaning of death, and the comfort which God gives 
to His children in the time of need. Such an evidence of 
Christian faith, wholly independent of the presence or sug- 
gestion of any foreign missionary, is a significant illustra- 
tion of the hold that Christianity has taken upon the 
Japanese. 

It would be easy to multiply instances of a kind that 
cannot be tabulated in statistical tables. For example, a 
few years ago, the pupils of the government schools in a 
certain ci^y were not allowed to attend the Sunday-school 
of the local church. Now they are not only free to attend, 
but six of the teachers are Christians, and four of them 
teach in that Sunday-school. Three successive principals 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN JAPAN 6o7 

of the Government Normal School in the same city, and 
several of the teachers from the Normal and other public 
schools, although not Christians^ have been members of 
the Bible class. 

In another city I obtained equally suggestive facts. 
There are five classes in the government school. In the 
first-year class there were forty-seven beHevers in Shinto- 
ism; in the second-year class thirty-one; in the third-year 
class eleven ; in the fourth-year class eight; and in the fifth 
clasS; the graduating class, only three. These statistics 
were pubHshed by the Japanese principal of the school. 
They show how education is affecting Shintoism even in 
the government schools, which are supposed to be most 
favorable to it. The same report of the principal showed 
that there were seven students who were Christians, all of 
whom were in the two highest classes. Of the five who 
stood at the head of the graduating class, four were Chris- 
tians. The principal reported that fourteen other students 
gave ^'no religion" in response to his inquiries, but stated 
that they were ^^ inquirers." A missionary asked the prin- 
cipal what they were inquirers of, and he repHed: '^Chris- 
tianity." 

A professor in the Imperial University at Tokyo has de- 
clared that "at least a million Japanese outside the Chris- 
tian church have so come to understand Christianity that, 
though as yet unbaptized, they are framing their lives ac- 
cording to the teachings of Christ"; and Marquis Okuma 
remarked: '^ Although Christianity has enrolled less than 
200,000 beHevers (this was in 1912), yet the indirect influ- 
ence of Christianity has poured into every realm of Japa- 
nese fife." 

This thought is emphasized by Mr. Kanzo Uchimura, a 
prominent Japanese, who avows himself a Christian though 
not connected with any church, and who declared in a 
pubHshed article: "There are hundreds and thousands of 
Christians in Japan who have had nothing to do with mis- 
sionaries, and who, without belonging to any church, and 
knjDwing nothing about dogmas and sacraments and eccle- 



638 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

siastical orders, are yet devout believers in God and Christ. 
There is such a thing as 'Christianity outside of churches/ 
and it is taking hold of the Japanese people far more strongly 
than the missionaries imagine. The Western idea, that a 
religion must show itself in an organized form before it 
can be. recognized as a rehgion at all, is alien to the Japa- 
nese mind. With us, religion is more a family affair than 
national or social, as is shown by the strong hold that Con- 
fucianism has had upon us without showing itself in any 
organized societies and movements. And I am confident 
that Christianity is now slowly but steadily taking the place 
of Confucianism as the family religion of the Japanese. 
Christianity is making progress in this country far ahead of 
missionaries. This new form of Christianity adopted by 
my countrymen is neither Orthodox nor Unitarian. We 
go to Jesus of Nazareth directly and aim to live and be made 
like Him." 

The Bible societies, which have done remarkably efficient 
work in Japan, report that 8,000,000 copies of the Bible 
have been circulated among the Japanese during the last 
forty years, and that the demand is still so great that the 
Bible is the best-selling book in Japan to-day. The transla- 
tions, begun by Doctor Gutzlaff and brought to a successful 
conclusion in 1885 by Doctors Hepburn, Verbeck, Brown, 
Bettelheim, and McCartee, have been characterized by com- 
petent linguists as '^ scholarly, idiomatic, readable and 
rhythmic," and have taken a recognized place in the literary 
as well as the rehgious fife of Japan. 

The Young Men's Christian Association flourishes in the 
large cities and in the army and navy. The association won 
golden opinions from the governmental and military au- 
thorities during the Russia-Japan War, and has been in high 
favor ever since. The attendance of soldiers at the eleven 
Y. M. C. A. branches in Korea and Manchuria aggregated 
a million and a half in eighteen months. The branch at 
Dairen, equipped under the guidance of that capable Chris- 
tian officer, Colonel (now Major-General) Hibiki, held the 
record for attendance until the European War, in 1914, the 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN JAPAN 639 

daily number of visiting soldiers ranging from 2,000 to 
6,000. Prince Ito attended the dedication of the Y. M. 
C. A. building in Seoul, December 4, 1908, and said in an 
address : ^^ It gives me great pleasure to be with you to-day 
on this auspicious occasion. ... I am sincerely gratified 
to see the association installed in an abode so well ap- 
pointed for its purposes, because I recognize in it a most 
potent instrument for the advancement of the social and 
moral well-being of this people. I recognize in the associa- 
tion a friend and fellow-worker in the great cause of 
national regeneration, which it is my duty and pleasure to 
further to the best of my abihty. I hardly need assure 
you, ladies and gentlemen, that the association may always 
count upon my sympathy and friendship. The Young 
Men^s Christian Association of Seoul has the sincerest 
wishes of all true friends of Korea for its success and pros- 
perity." 

The secular press does not fail to note the trend. An 
editorial in The Japanese Advertiser, on Christmas Day, 
says: "There can be no gainsaying that the Christmas 
season, quite apart from its religious significance, is making 
great headway in this country. A walk through the streets 
of Tokyo to-day gives abundant evidence of the influence 
of the season, for all the shops are stocked with goods that 
are associated with the foreign Christmas quite as much as 
with the Japanese New Year. Dotted throughout the city 
are the Christian churches, each one of which is now en- 
gaged in celebrating the holy season with religious services, 
as well as sacred concerts and other entertainments suitable 
to the occasion. It must be conceded that Christianity is 
making great progress in a country where its principal fes- 
tivals are coming to be accepted by the mass of the people, 
even if that acceptation is only concerned with the purely 
secular manifestations of the faith. It is a great stride 
forward compared with what it was only a few years ago, 
when the people were still antagonistic toward the religion 
which, together with all its associations, they regarded 
with contempt." 



640 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

Striking is the contrast between jeering crowds trampling 
on crosses lying in the dust a generation ago, and the great 
Red Cross Government Hospital in Tokyo, and the Japa- 
nese Red Cross Society enrolling thousands of the most in- 
fluential men and women of the new Japan under the direct 
patronage of the Empress. It is true that the name '^Red 
Cross" was adopted without reference to the religious sig- 
nificance of the word Cross; but it is significant that the 
Japanese see no objection to-day to a symbol which a former 
generation despised. 

I would not make too much of these facts. Japan is still 
far from being a Christian nation. The obstacles yet to be 
surmounted are numerous and some of them are formidable. 
The impression has gone abroad that the whole Japanese 
nation, having adopted many Western methods, has also 
undergone a vital religious transformation. That such a 
transformation has begun is undoubtedly true. Evidences 
of it are numerous. But the statement of a committee of 
missionaries years ago still holds that, while the country 
has in many ways adopted the fruits of Christian civiliza- 
tion, it has done so with no large acceptance of Christian 
truth as its basis, and that approximately 80 per cent of 
the population is still destitute of a knowledge of the char- 
acter of Christianity which would make intelligent accep- 
tance possible. The bulk of the peasant class knows little 
or nothing of Christianity, except in the vaguest way; and 
many of the educated classes value its enlightening, social, 
and humanitarian influence without a real understanding 
of its vital spiritual power. Buddhism and Shintoism hav- 
ing long been the national religions, it is not surprising that 
there are thirty times as many Buddhist and Shinto tem- 
ples as Christian chapels, and two hundred times as many 
priests as Christian preachers; but the proportions indi- 
cated testify to the fact that the old faiths are far from 
moribund. 

Nevertheless, surveying the whole Christian movement 
in Japan, and making all due allowance for the many diffi- 
culties still existing and the great work yet to be done, the 



PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN JAPAN 641 

broad fact remains that Christianity has made notable 
headway in a country to which it came as a faith ahen to 
the beHefs and customs of the people^ a faith brought by 
foreigners whose motives were suspected and whose ideas 
and practices were widely at variance with those of the 
Japanese. A vigorous church has been developed, with 
capable leadership and a deepening sense of responsibilit}' 
for the evangelization of the people of Japan. Christian 
ideas have begun to permeate the Hteratiu-e and the think- 
ing of the nation to a greater extent than is conmaonly 
reaHzed. The Reverend Doctor D. C. Greene, of Tokyo, 
declared, shortly before his lamented death, that ^^ hardly 
ever before in any land has Christianity borne riper or more 
varied fruit at so early a stage in its history." The tree is 
comparatively small, but it is no longer an exotic of imcer- 
tain life. It has struck its roots firmly into Japanese soil 
and has showed that it can and that it will flourish there as 
an indigenous growth. 

It is regrettable that many of the Americans and Euro- 
peans who visit the Far East do not make more effort to 
see missionary work. Most of them spend their time in 
the shops, hotels, and clubs of the ports and capitals, the 
Buddhist and Shinto temples and shrines, and a few places 
of scenic or historic interest. The professional guides whom 
they employ know that they have nothing to gain by ad- 
vising a traveller to visit a mission; and if he asks about 
one, they are apt to profess ignorance, or to tell him that 
there is nothing worth seeing there. It is to their financial 
gain to pilot him to the shops, which pay them a commis- 
sion on articles that he can be induced to buy. The busi- 
ness and professional residents in the foreign settlements 
include men and women of high Chiistian character; but 
they themselves frankly lament that irreligion in these set- 
tlements is more common than in corresponding circles in 
American and British cities. Between mendacious guides 
and irreligious foreigners, the hurried traveller is apt to get 
a poor opinion of missionaries unless he insists on seeing 
them for himself , which, unfortunately, he does not always do. 



642 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

During Colonel Alfred E. Buck^s incumbency as American 
Minister to Japan, a traveller asked his opinion of mission- 
aries, stating that he had been a contributor to mission 
work, but that he had heard so many criticisms on the 
steamer and in the hotels that he was inclined to discon- 
tinue his support. Colonel Buck replied that he should 
not make such reports the basis of judgment; that he him- 
self had once doubted the value and advisability of mission- 
ary effort, but that fuller knowledge had led him to revise 
his opinion, and that he had come to the conclusion that 
the influence of missionaries had been worth more to Japan 
than all other influences combined. Another American Am- 
bassador to Japan, the Honorable Luke E. Wright said: 
''When I came to the Orient I was disappointed in the mis- 
sionaries — agreeably disappointed. I expected to find them, 
as in every other calling, all sorts of men, with a proportion 
of no-account ones who had come out here because they 
could not make a living at home. But I must confess that 
I have not met a single missionary who could not pass 
anywhere. Both in the Philippines and in Japan I have 
met many missionaries, and a finer lot of men I have never 
seen anjrwhere." ^ These are the disinterested opinions of 
men who know the facts; and they are corroborated by 
the opinions of the eminent Japanese that have been cited 
on preceding pages. 

^ Cj. also the tribute of F. A. McKenzie, correspondent of the London DmLy 
Mail, in his books, The Unveiled East and From Tokyo to Tifiis* 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 
TREND OF JAPANESE RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 

The Japanese type of religious thought is definitely 
evangelical of a moderate or liberal trend. At first, indeed, 
the accepted creeds were conservative. When the Presby- 
terian and Reformed missions formed the Church of Christ 
in Japan, they did so on the doctrinal basis of the home 
churches which they represented, and the infant organiza- 
tion solemnly adopted the Canons of the Synod of Dort, 
the Heidelberg Cathechism, the Westminster Confession 
of Faith, and the Shorter Catechism. The Reverend K. 
Ibuka, of Tokyo, vainly protested, urging not only un- 
suitabiHty but that two of these symbols had never been 
translated into the Japanese language, and were wholly 
unknown to the Japanese ministers and membership. But 
it was easier to use the historical creeds of the churches 
which maintained the co-operating missions than it was to 
frame a satisfactory new creed, and Mr. Ibuka's motion 
was defeated. Time soon showed the inexpediency of at- 
tempting to force these elaborate symbols of the West upon 
the youthful church in the East. About ten years after- 
ward, Mr. Ibuka's motion was revived and carried, and 
short and simple articles, based on the Apostles' Creed, 
were adopted, with a preamble adapting it to Japanese 
needs. In 1912 the Christian Literatiu-e Society of Japan 
issued a ^^ Statement of the Christian Faith and Life, A 
Message to the Japanese Churches," which had been pre- 
viously submitted to seven hundred missionaries of the 
various communions represented in Japan. It was issued, 
not as a complete presentation of the Christian faith and 
life, but ^^to acquaint the Japanese with the salient features 
of Christian teaching." One who wishes to know the sub- 
stance of the missionary teaching in Japan on the vital 

643 



644 thp: mastery of the far east 

points of theolog}^ and life will be deeply interested in this 
remarkable document. 

It might be supposed that the martial spirit of the Japa- 
nese and their strict ideas of organization and discipline 
would incline them to a rigid type of religious thinking and 
procedure; but their national tendency in this direction is 
modified by the equally strong Japanese disposition to 
scrutinize everything of foreign origin^ and to adopt only 
so much as they deem adapted to their use. Their selec- 
tion in doctrinal matters is influenced by the further fact, 
to which I have referred elsewhere, that they had not 
been accustomed to conceive of a Supreme Being in terms 
of personality. Some of the tenets of Christianity, there- 
fore, appeared to them to be irrational. The fatherhood 
and love of God, so precious to us of the West, required a 
great deal of explanation before they became intelHgible to 
the Japanese. The parable of the Prodigal Son did not 
suggest to them what it instantly does to an American audi- 
ence, because they had never thought of God as a father, 
or of man as his child. Nor is it altogether easy to explain 
some other Christian truths and biblical accounts. The 
Twenty-third Psalm and the parable of the Good Shepherd 
conveyed ver}^ little of their rich meaning to people who had 
never seen a sheep. Only recently a scholarly missionary, 
who has undertaken to prepare a series of articles on Chris- 
tianity for the vernacular press, wrote: ^^One has to write 
in a very elementary fashion when one seeks to interest 
those who have alsolutely no knowledge of Christian teach- 
ing. Many things most simple to us must then be ex- 
plained, and it is often most difficult to find an explanation 
which makes the matter clear, and avoids making it gro- 
tesque. For example, to tell the story of the Annunciation 
and of the shepherds, one must explain what angels are; 
and to do that so as to seem reasonable and not silly is 
harder than you would think. In the case of the Tempta- 
tion, I foimd these difficulties so great that I left it out 
altogether — as Mark did ! To be sure, he mentions it, but 
he does not relate it.'' 



TREND OF JAPANESE RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 645 

The Japanese churches now include a considerable num- 
ber of Cliristians who have passed beyond the stage re- 
feiTed to in the preceding paragraph, but the difficulties 
described are still encountered by evangelists who address 
the comparatively imtouched masses. Even among the 
Christians themselves, especially those of the first genera- 
tion of behevers, the heritage of centuries of non-Christian 
beliefs often creates certain rather definite presuppositions 
that are apt to affect the interpretation of the Bible. The 
persistence of pre-Christian ideas in Christian chm-ches, 
and their effect upon faith and practice is a subject to which 
I have adverted in another volume,^ and which has received 
remarkably suggestive treatment by Professor Joh. War- 
neck. ^ 

The Japanese Chiistians propose to think through the 
problems of theology for themselves. Western creeds are 
not blindly accepted. One of their ablest men, the Reverend 
Doctor M. Uemura, of Tokyo, has plainly written: ^'In 
the realm of rehgious thought, is it not shameful to accept 
opinions ready-made, relying on the experiences of others 
instead of one's own ? . . . Is it not a great duty that we 
owe to God and to mankind to develop the rehgious talent 
of our people, and to contribute our share to the rehgious 
ideas of the world?'' This is a healthy intellectual and 
spiritual sentiment, and it may result in time in a re- 
statement of theology in terms of Japanese thought. We 
should welcome this rather than deprecate it. We have 
done the same thing for ourselves and, we beheve, to the 
enlargement and enrichment of common Christianity. Per- 
haps the Japanese will make quite as valuable an addition 
to the world's faith. The probabflity that some changes 
will be made (whether good, bad, or indifferent, time will 
show) is heightened by the fact that many of the leaders 
of the Japanese churches have been largely influenced by 
the inquiring spirit of modem scientific and philosophical 

* Rising Churches in Non-Christian Lands, pp. 53 seq. 
' Article, "Vestiges of Heathenism Within the Church in the Mission Field/' 
Jntemational Review of Mia-stoas, October, 1914. 



646 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

methods, either in European or American colleges and uni- 
versities or in Japanese institutions which have accepted 
those methods. Some years ago the tendency appeared to 
be toward Unitarianism. Since then, the current has 
swimg back to definitely evangeUcal channels. A well- 
known missionary of the conservative school expresses the 
opinion that the Japanese Christian leaders ^^are doctri- 
nally sound. This does not mean that they all stand for the 
old-line orthodoxy, especially with respect to the inspiration 
of the Scriptures. To a very considerable extent they ex- 
press themselves in terms of the ^assured results of Higher 
Criticism,' of what one may call the modem type. In 
spite of some things here and there that men like myself 
deplore, however, we find ourselves obliged in fairness to 
admit that the trend of the past decade has been toward 
a positive stand and a sound stand on the great funda- 
mentals of the faith." Another missionary writes: ^'We 
sometimes say hard things about the ministry of the Japa- 
nese Church, but it is not about their doctrines or prin- 
ciples. They are nearly as well grounded in the doctrines 
and principles of Christianity as the ministry of the Protes- 
tant Churches of America and England. The difficulty is 
that these doctrines and principles have not yet had time 
to work themselves out into consistent and steady prac- 
tice, and there are constant outcroppings in practice of 
pagan pride and injustice. There is much Judaism and 
heathenism left in us Western Christians. Why should 
there not be still more of Buddhist and Confucian thorn- 
life left in the first generation of Christians of Japan?" 

The problem of the relation of the foreign mission to the 
native church, which in most lands is still in its early or 
middle stages, has in Japan become acute. It is not a 
purely religious problem; it is fundamentally a part of 
the question which affects many poHtical and commercial 
relationships. When foreigners develop any enterprise in 
Japan, shall they or the Japanese control it? Japan has 
vigorous churches. Their governing bodies are composed 
in some cases wholly, and in others very largely, of Japanese. 



TRExND OF JAPANESE RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 647 

Independence of missionary control has reached its most 
complete stage in the Kumiai (Congregational) Churches. 
Congregational ministers in America are members of local 
churches, but not in Japan ; nor are they eligible to member- 
ship in the National Council. The Methodist Episcopal 
Church is organized into conferences presided over by a 
Japanese bishop, and The Church of Christ, formed in 1877 
by the six Presbyterian and Reformed Missions, has seven 
Presbyteries which are united in a Japanese Synod. All 
of the seven bishops of the Anglican communion, represent- 
ing a union of the Church of England and the Protestant 
Episcopal Church of the United States, are still foreigners; 
but the Japanese clergy preponderate in the diocesan con- 
ventions, and the demand for Japanese bishops is becoming 
more insistent. 

A large proportion of the churches are self-supporting. 
The Church of Christ will not organize a congregation as a 
church unless it is wholly self-sustaining, including the 
pastor^s salary; and if a church after being organized 
ceases to be self-supporting, it loses its status and its right 
to have a voting representative in Presbytery. The pas- 
tors of the self-supporting churches have greater prestige 
than their brethren who serve other congregations, and 
they alone have the power to vote in the presb;yi:eries and to 
represent them in the joint committees of Japanese and 
missionaries in the supervision of evangelistic work. Doctor 
M. Uemura declares that ''apart from Chiist and the Spirit, 
Japanese Christianity has no need to rely on any one what- 
ever. Sufficient unto itself, resolved to stand alone, it must 
advance along the whole Line toward the reahzation of this 
ideal. ... To depend upon the pockets of foreigners for 
money to pay the bills is not a situation which ought to 
satisfy the moral sense of Japanese Christians." 

The policy of the Roman and Greek CathoHc Churches 
lodges final power in the authorities at Rome and Petro- 
grad, respectively, and all bishops are appointed by and 
are amenable to them. Practically, however, the local 
bishops exercise wide discretion in the management of their 



648 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

own work. That the national spirit of independence ex- 
ists among their Japanese clergy and laity may be inferred 
from the fact that July 13; 1909, forty delegates of the Rus- 
sian Greek Church, assembled in Tokyo, passed a resolution 
to the effect that the maintenance of the Japan Orthodox 
Church should be placed in the hands of the Japanese be- 
lievers as soon as possible; that, since the whole expenses 
of the church are met with mone}^ obtained from the Holy 
Synod, or supplied by the Russian Govenmient, the pastors 
of the church are in the position of being salaried officials 
of the Russian Government, a position unbecoming for 
Japanese. 

Japanese ecclesiastical bodies of all types insist upon a 
decisive voice in the control of their religious work. This is 
partly because of the temperament of the Japanese, who 
are the most self-reHant, ambitious, and aggressive of all 
non-Christian peoples; and partly because of the fact that 
the converts in Japan have not come so generally from the 
lower classes as in most other countries, but from the 
middle and higher middle class, which has produced the 
leaders of modem Japan in education, commerce, politics, 
and the army and na\^. This predominance of exception- 
ally strong men, together with the national spirit of pride 
and self-reliance, naturally resulted in the development of a 
spirit of independence in the church earHer than in other 
lands. The Japanese are not inclined to follow the leader- 
ship of foreigners in religion any more than in politics and 
business. 

The missionaries therefore found themselves confronted 
by the alternatives of organizing separate churches, or of 
withdrawing from the country, or of accepting co-operation 
with the Japanese churches on such terms as the latter 
might prescribe. The first alternative was manifestly im- 
practicable, except as a temporary makeshift. A Japanese 
church controlled by foreigners and accepting their leader- 
ship and money, side by side with an independent Japanese 
church struggling to make its own way, would command 
no respect, and could have no future. 



TREND OF JAPANESE RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 649 

The second alternative might appear to be a natural 
corollary from the aim of the missionary enterprise. Since 
that aim is to found the church, it might be considered 
achieved when the church is started. The objections to 
withdrawal from Japan, however, are decisive. After 
making the most generous allowance for that part of the 
population that is being influenced by Christian ideas, 
there remain vast sections that are almost wholly un- 
touched. It is a great thing that within a Httle more than 
half a century after the establishment of Protestant mis- 
sions there are nearly a himdred thousand communicants 
in Japan; that Roman and Greek Catholics enlarge the 
total to a quarter of a million; and that the progressive life 
of the nation is feeling the influence of Christianity in the 
varied ways that have been described in a former chapter. 
But there are 57,000,000 people in Japan. The churches, 
with all their intelligence and activity, are still too small 
and weak to handle unaided the tremendous problems of 
evangelization and Christian education. They will un- 
doubtedly do so in time. I have such faith in the future 
of Christianity in Japan that, if missionaries were to be 
withdrawn entirely, I believe that Christianity would sur- 
vive and ultimately spread throughout the Empire. But 
we should not acquiesce in a policy which might defer the 
evangelization of Japan for centuries, when we are able to 
assist in having it accomplished within a shorter period. 

The opinion of the Japanese Christian leaders on this 
subject is conclusive. They do not want the missions to 
withdraw. When the late Bishop Honda, of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church, was asked by the Canadian Methodist 
Mission for his judgment as to the advisability of an ex- 
tensive evangelistic work by the mission or, on the other 
hand, the gradual withdrawal of the mission force, he re- 
plied : "From the depth of my heart I request you to go on. 
. . . The united new church is struggling for self-support 
and has not power to advance; so it is absolutely necessary 
to have the missionaries work for the imevangelized places." 
The leaders of The Church of Christ told me that the pres- 



050 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

ent foreign force is too small, and that more men and 
money are urgently needed, particularly for the educa- 
tional and literaiy work which the Japanese Christians are 
not yet able to do on an adequate scale. Of the Kumiai 
churches, their secretar}^, the Reverend T. Makino, wrote 
in the Japan Christian World: ^'For years we raised our 
voices for the independence of our churches. Now, inde- 
pendence being an accomplished fact, we are up against 
another problem. It is the need of that hand-in-hand 
effort that goes with the expansion of evangelistic effort. 
. . . The day has passed for us to regard them (mission- 
aries) as strangers. It is now the time for us to work in 
full fellowship with them in spiritual warfare. We earnestly 
hope that the American Board will appreciate the oppor- 
tunity and will greatly increase their forces.'^ 

The third alternative, co-operation, appears to be an 
easy solution of the problem of relationship with a self- 
governing church. But what is meant by co-operation? 
Some explain it one way, some another. The Synod of 
The Church of Christ, in 1906, declared what it meant by 
the following action: ^^A co-operating mission is one which 
recognizes the right of The Church of Christ in Japan to 
the general control of all evangelistic work done by the 
mission as a mission within the church, or in connection 
with it, and which carries on such work under an arrange- 
ment based upon the foregoing principle, and concurred in 
by the Synod, acting through the Board of Missions." The 
following year, the Synod emphasized its position by voting 
that ^^all local churches receiving aid from missions which 
by September 30, 1908, should fail to co-operate by defini- 
tion, should be totally disconnected from The Church of 
Christ in Japan." 

Missionaries of some other communions, like the Protes- 
tant Episcopal and Methodist Episcopal, have not experi- 
enced the precise form of difficulty that for a time confronted 
the missions of the Presb}i;erian and Reformed churches, 
as their methods of organization are somewhat different. 
But the fimdamental fact affects them all, namely, that 



TREND OF JAPANESE RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 651 

missionaries in Japan cannot successfully separate their 
work from the Japanese churches, or wisely withdraw from 
the country, but must remain and work in some form of 
direct and sympathetic co-operation with them. This is 
what they are very cordially doing. They respect their 
Japanese brethren, and are working happily with them. 
They do not beHeve that a missionary anywhere in the 
world makes a mistake when he trusts his native associates 
and co-operates ungrudgingly with them. If they wish to 
do some things that he does not approve, it may not fol- 
low that they are wrong. At any rate, they are in their 
own country, and are dealing with affairs that are more 
vital to them than to any one else. The missionary is not 
in Japan for himself, but for the Japanese. His aim is to 
establish the church; and that church when established 
does not exist in the interest of the missions, but the mis- 
sions exist in the interest of the church, which is expected 
in due time to assume responsibihty for the work that is 
developed. 

I look upon the growing power and independence of the 
churches in Japan, not indeed without some anxiety, and 
yet, on the whole, with large gratification. They have 
made mistakes, and doubtless they will make more. The 
churches in New Testament times made them, and so have 
the modern churches in Europe and America. The Asiatic 
churches may promulgate some doctrines and interpreta- 
tions of the Bible that we regard as imsound; but are 
Western churches so imiformly free from error that we are 
willing to make them patterns for the churches in the mis- 
sion field ? When we think of all the vagaries and heresies 
that thrive like weeds in the Western mind, we may feel 
that perhaps it is just as well that the churches in the Far 
East should be autonomous, so that they will be free to 
accept the good and to reject the bad.^ 

^ For a further discussion of the relation of Western theological and eccle- 
siastical forms to the churches in Asia, and the pressing question of church 
union, see the author's volumes on The Foreign Missionary, Unity and Mis- 
sions, and Rising Churches in Non-Christian Lands. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 
JAPANESE TESTIMONY TO JAPAN'S URGENT NEED 

No one can study Japan and the Japanese with an open 
mind without becoming conscious of deepened interest and 
friendhness of feeling. Irritating as some of their methods 
are, trying as it is for the race-proud Anglo-Saxon to feel 
that at last he has met a competitor that he cannot easily 
overcome, these things increase rather than diminish one^s 
interest. It is to the credit of the Japanese that they are 
able, united, ambitious, and aggressive. I do not extenuate 
their faults any more than I extenuate those of my own 
countrymen; but I am eager to see the Japanese united 
with the best people of Europe and America in the effort 
to promote righteousness throughout the earth. Forces 
and temptations in America, which numerous and powerful 
Christian churches help us to fight, are surging into a coun- 
try where the opposing forces of righteousness are still 
comparatively new and small. 

An influential Japanese journal editorially warns its 
readers of the resultant danger: "Japan is now joyfully 
riding on the wave of prosperity,'' it declares. "Gold is 
flowing in and many a man has amassed a fortune which he 
never dreamt of before. It is a question, however, whether 
this abnormal growth in wealth is an unalloyed blessing. 
A nation on which wealth has been imexpectedly thrust 
will degenerate imless it is morally strong enough to bear 
it. Japan now stands at the crossways of rise and decline. 
If, on account of the great wealth she has been given, she 
becomes swell-headed, extravagant, and effeminate, she is 
doomed. Morally this is really a critical time for her, and 
it is a time when her statesmen, educationists, and religion- 
ists must exert themselves to the utmost to warn the people 
against the danger looming ahead, restrain them from giving 

652 



TESTIMONY TO JAPAN'S URGENT NEED 653 

themselves up to a life of careless luxury, and show them the 
right way to pursue/' 

The peril of the situation is intensified by the fact that 
the old rehgions of Japan are losing their hold, particularly 
upon the educated classes. Mr. Galen W. Fisher, Secretary 
of the Y, M. C. A. in Tokyo, says that a census of 409 stu- 
dents in three schools showed that only 21 acknowledged 
any faith; and that of these, 15 were Buddhists, 1 was 
a Confucian, 1 a Shintoist, and 4 were Christians . The 
flower of Japan^s youth are the students of the government 
imiversities. The young men in the Imperial University 
in Tokyo were asked to indicate their religions. The re- 
sponses were as follows: Buddhists, 50; Christians, 60; 
atheists, 1,500; agnostics, 3,000. In other words, out of 
4,610 young men who will be among the most influential 
men of the future, 4,500 had discarded the national religious 
faiths and become atheists or agnostics. What will it mean 
to the world if these proportions are to continue, and the 
Far East is to develop under the leadership of a nation that 
has no religious faith? No wonder that Baron Makino, 
Minister of Education, a few years ago said : '^ We are greatly 
distressed about the moral condition of the students, and 
the low character of the ordinary lodging-houses where 
young men live." 

Mr. Masujiro Honda says of the conference of represen- 
tatives of Buddhist, Shinto and Christian religions in 1912 : 
"It was, on the one hand, a frank admission on the part 
of government officials and Elder Statesmen of their power- 
lessness to cope with the alarming situation that the trend 
of events presented before their anxious eyes, and on the 
other hand it was a rebuke administered to the spiritual 
powers that be for their lack of zeal. . . . The leading in- 
tellects and financiers who organized it have been com- 
pelled to recognize the urgent and imperative need of a 
reHgion as the true basis of a moral and material regenera- 
tion of their coimtrymen." 

A society for the study of rehgions has been formed 
among the professors of the Imperial University in Tokyo. 



654 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

This does not imply that the members are disposed to be- 
come Christians, but it does signify that some of the ablest 
men in that faculty of able and scholarly men are not satis- 
fied with an agnostic or atheistic interpretation of life, and 
that they regard religion as a force that should have care- 
ful and intelligent study. It is significant, too, that in 
1916 the university accepted a gift of 200,000 3^en from 
Baron Morimura, a well-known Christian, to estabhsh a 
chair of Christianity in the university. 

In my conversations with prominent Japanese during 
my two visits to Japan, I was accustomed to bring in the 
query: "What do you regard as the chief need of modern 
Japan?" After collating the answers at the end of my 
tours, I found that the consensus of opinion was that Japan's 
most urgent need is a new basis of morals; that the nation 
has broken loose from its old religious moorings and has 
not yet made new ones. 

The lesson should be taken to heart in Occidental as well 
as Oriental lands. We of the West know that Christ is a 
cleansing and stabilizing force in national life, and we 
ought to be profoimdly concerned that the Japanese should 
have Christ to help them. We want to see Christian mis- 
sions in Japan strengthened, not because we regard the 
Japanese as inleriors, not because we deserve any credit for 
the knowledge of God which was brought to us as to them 
from the outside, but because we count the Japanese as 
brethren who need the same Christ that we need. Lord 
Balfour, of the British Parliament, has well said that 'Hhe 
great lesson impressed upon us by our representatives from 
whatever race they come, and in whatever field they work, 
is that it is perilous to give the benefits of civiHzation with 
its accompanying temptations, without making an earnest 
effort to strengthen moral and spiritual forces. ... It is 
the duty of Christian nations to make as the first aim of 
their policy the good of the races with whom they are 
brought in contact. The desire for their own advantage 
is no excuse for departure on their part from this sound 
principle." 



TESTIMONY TO JAPAN'S URGENT NEED 655 

We of the West have given the Japanese our weapons 
to increase their mihtary efficiency, our inventions and dis- 
coveries to increase their manufacturing and commercial 
efficiency, our educational and scientific methods to increase 
their intellectual efiiciency, our medical and surgical equip- 
ment to increase their abihty to treat disease; are we not 
under equal obligation, to say the least, to give them the 
gospel that will increase their spiritual efficiency and enable 
them to make right use of all their other powers? 

The Japanese already have a political \ision. They 
covet the leadership of Asia, and they are preparing for it 
with a skill and energy which elicit the wonder of man- 
kind. They already have a commercial vision, and they 
are strenuously trying to realize it. They already have an 
intellectual vision, and they have built up one of the best 
educational systems in the world. What Japan now needs 
is a spiritual vision which will purify and glorify these other 
visions. 

This vision of Christ is vital to the future of Japan and 
of the Far East. Few foreigners have been so deeply in 
sympathy with the Japanese as the late Lafcadio Hearn; 
but in his chapter on "The Genius of Japanese Civihza- 
tion^' he wrote: "The psychologist knows that the so- 
caUed adoption of Western civilization within a time of 
thirty years cannot mean the addition to the Japanese 
brain of any organs or power previously absent from it. 
He knows that it cannot mean any sudden change in the 
mental or moral character of the race. Such changes are 
not made in a generation. Transmitted civiHzation works 
much more slowly, requiring even hundreds of years to 
produce certain permanent psychological results. ... It 
is quite evident that the mental readjustments, effected at 
a cost which remains to be told, have given good results 
only along directions in which the race has shown capaci- 
ties of special kinds. . . . Nothing remarkable has been 
done, however, in directions foreign to the national genius. 
... To imagine that the emotional character of an 
Oriental race could be transformed in the short space of 



656 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

thirty years by the contact of Occidental ideas is absurd. 
... All that Japan has been able to do so miraculously 
well has been done without any self-transformation, and 
those who imagine her emotionally closer to us to-day than 
she may have been thirty years ago, ignore the facts of 
science which admit of no argument." ^ The Japanese 
mind has long been adapted to war, to politics, and to cer- 
tain kinds of industrial and scientific efficiency. ICnowledge 
of Western methods and discoveries has simply enabled the 
Japanese to do more effectively and on a larger scale what 
they had been doing after a fashion before. The spiritual 
realm, however, is a comparatively new world to them. 
Shintoism and Buddhism have not known, and therefore 
could not make known, a personal God. 

In his instructive book. The Future of Japan, W. Petrie 
Watson declares that religion, conceived as God and as a 
final and sufficient explanation of all phenomena, is not a 
Japanese notion, and that of religion as it is conceived in 
Europe there is little or none in Japan. The Japanese re- 
gard religion as subordinate in life, and the temper of their 
mind is such that it is usually difficult for them to acquire 
a just view of its authority and indispensableness in indi- 
vidual and national existence. His conclusion is that Japan 
is addressing herself to the great responsibihties of the 
modern world without any religion at all, in the proper 
sense of the term; and that the effort is pathetic and dis- 
appointing rather than heroic and inspiring, since there is 
no fresh beginning of history which has not been bom from 
a new reHgion or from the new interpretation of an existing 
rehgion. He admires the administrative efficiency with 
which Japan is doing her work at present, and the splendid 
enthusiasm which she is bringing to her present tasks; but 
even savages are often recklessly brave and eagerly willing 
to die for their leader. There is therefore reason for pro- 
found anxiety as we study the relations which Japan has 
formed with the modem world, and the power that she is 
exerting. Only as the Japanese grasp Christ's ideals of 

» Kokoro, pp. 16-18. 



TESTIMONY TO JAPAN'S URGENT NEED 657 

life and build upon the solid foundation of Christ's teachings 
will they be able to maintain themselves as a great Power. 
The Japanese must be brought within view of the necessity 
of a religious interpretation of life, ampler, clearer, and 
more categorical than that which they have found or can 
find either in a reHgion of loyalty, or in Bushido, or in 
esoteric Buddhism, or in superstitious Shintoism. Japan 
can not hope to reap the results of the religion of Europe 
without an ultimate reckoning with their cause. ^ 

Thoughtful Japanese have begun to see this, and to see 
also that Christianity offers the regenerative principle that 
Japan needs. Let their own authoritative testimony be 
cited rather than that of a foreigner: 

Marquis Okuma, former Prime Minister: "Tlie Japa- 
nese have made great progress along material lines. It is 
only sixty years since we were a feudal nation. We have 
done in that time what some nations have taken five cen- 
turies to accompUsh. But our real development has been 
chiefly along the material side. We still have the moral 
and spiritual faults of a feudal civilization, even, in some 
cases, augmented by contact with the faults of the most 
modem capitals. . . . Our mental and moral development 
has not kept pace with our material progress. . . . There 
is not a single moral standard to which the people can ad- 
here. Japan is athirst for moral and religious guidance. . . . 
The origin of modem civilization is to be found in the teach- 
ing of the Sage of Judea, by whom alone the necessary 
moral dynamic is supplied. ... No practical solution of 
many pressing problems is in sight apart from Christi- 
anity.'* 

Baron Mayejima, former member of the Imperial Cab- 
inet: "I firmly believe we must have religion as the basis 
of our national and personal weKare. No matter how large 
an army and navy we may have, unless we have righteous- 
ness as the foimdation of our national existence, we shall 
fall short of success. And when I look about me to see 
what religion we may best rely upon, I am convinced that 

1 The Future of Japan, cf. especially chaps. XIV, XXVIII, and XXX. 



658 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

the religion of Christ is the one most full of strength and 
promise for the nation/' 

Baron Kanda, Head of the Higher Commercial School 
in Tokyo: '^Let me pay a humble tribute to that noble 
band of American missionaries and teachers who have con- 
secrated their lives to the cause of moral and intellectual 
elevation of our people, . . . the lasting influence of whose 
labors it is impossible to overestimate. And I am glad to 
say that this noble band is constantly recruited and is 
ever swelling, whose influence is deeply stamped upon the 
rising generation, and will be felt indirectly through genera- 
tions to come." 

Baron Shibusawa, chairman of the commission of rep- 
resentative business men of Japan which visited the United 
States a few years ago: ^' Japan in the future must base 
her morality on rehgion. It must be a religion that does 
not rest on an empty or superstitious faith, like that of some 
of the Buddhist sects in our land, but must be like the one 
that prevails in your own country, which manifests its 
power over men by filling them with good works." 

Prince Ito, former Prime Minister, early in his public 
career had said: ^^I regard rehgion as quite unnecessary to 
a nation's life. Science is far above superstition, and what 
is any rehgion. Buddhism or Christianity, but superstition 
and a possible source of weakness to a nation?" He hved 
to change this opinion and in 1907, in an address at the 
laying of the corner-stone of the Y. M. C. A. building in 
Seoul, he pressed the following propositions: That no na- 
tion can prosper without material improvement; that 
material prosperity cannot last long without a moral back- 
bone; that the strongest backbone is that which has a 
religious sanction behind it. The following year he took 
part in the dedication of the completed building, where he 
made the address referred to in another chapter; and that 
evening (December 4, 1908), he gave a banquet at his offi- 
cial residence in honor of the Y. M. C. A., at which he said: 
"In the early years of Japan's reformation, the senior 
statesmen were opposed to religious toleration, especially 



TESTIMONY TO JAPAN'S URGENT NEED 659 

because of distrust of Christianity. But I fought vehe- 
mently for freedom of beHef and propagation, and finally tri- 
umphed. My reasoning was this: Civilization depends 
upon morahty, and the highest morality upon religion. 
Therefore, religion must be tolerated and encouraged." 

Major-General Hibiki, of the Imperial Army: '^It is 
important to send missionaries to other parts of Asia, but 
it is far more important to send them to Japan. This is 
the strategic land, and now is the strategic time. For Japan 
is the inevitable leader of the Orient. It will make a vast 
difference with the whole East, and indeed with the whole 
world, whether Japan becomes Christian or remains per- 
manently an un-Christian nation. '^ 

The Kokumin, of Tokyo, regarded as an organ of the 
government: ^^The development of Japan to a first class 
power within the past fifty years is to a great extent at- 
tributable to the trouble taken by the missionaries who, 
either by establishing schools or by preaching the gospel 
of Christ in the churches, have cultivated the minds of the 
Japanese and enhanced the standard of their morals. It 
is to be hoped that the missionaries will redouble their 
energies and zeal in promoting the welfare and happiness 
of the Japanese." 

If any one in America or Great Britain doubts whether 
Christian missions are needed or desired by the Japanese, 
let him ponder these emphatic statements by representative 
Japanese. They believe that the duty of the hour is of 
the most urgent description. President Harada, of Kyoto, 
writes: "The situation in the Orient constitutes one of the 
most splendid opportunities, and at the same time one of 
the greatest crises in the whole history of the Church. . . . 
The Christianization of Japan is no holiday task; indeed, 
it is certain to be a long and a severe campaign. Japan, 
with all her progress in the arts and crafts of civiHzation, 
and all her friendliness toward Christian ethical standards, 
is far from being a Christian nation. Yet Japan is a prize 
worth capturing. Gigantic as are the internal forces ar- 
rayed against Christianity, the Christian cohorts are daily 



660 THE MASTERY OF THE FAR EAST 

growing in numbers and efficiency. The disquieting con- 
sideration is that the tides of the new social and religious 
life are waiting for no man.'^ 

No more significant event has occurred in modem times, 
few more significant events in all history, than the emer- 
gence of Japan from the isolation and ignorance of hoary 
centuries into the noonday blaze of world prominence. 
With remarkable energy and skill the Japanese are adapt- 
ing themselves to the wider demands of the new era. They 
have amply demonstrated that they are not an inferior 
people. They have been justly recognized at the Peace 
Conference in Paris as one of the five major Powers, on a 
plane of equality with Great Britain, France, Italy and the 
United States. They should have, not a grudging toler- 
ance, but a cordial welcome as an equal member of the 
family of nations. They have done some splendid things 
already and they will undoubtedly do more. They have 
achieved the mastery of the Far East. They are '^ leading 
the Orient — but whither?'' Their best men are striving, 
under a solemn sense of responsibility, to have their coun- 
try lead with ^^ clean hands and a pure heart" toward high 
levels of national character and influence. 

A spiritually regenerated Japan would mean much for 
the Far East and for the whole world. The very solidarity 
of the Japanese nation would powerfully reinforce its im- 
pact for righteousness. The energy and courage which so 
eminently characterize the Japanese, their readiness to adapt 
themselves to new conditions, their sacrificial willingness to 
dare and to die for the cause they espouse — these qualities, 
if pervaded and inspired by the spirit of Christ, would make 
Japan one of the greatest powers for good that the world 
has known. Regenerative forces have already begun to 
operate most promisingly. Many intelligent Japanese are 
earnestly trying to strengthen them. The character of 
these Japanese justifies large hopes for the future. To aid 
them in seeking the best things for Japan and the Far East 
is our high privilege as well as our imperative duty. The 
Japanese tell us that they need our co-operation, and we 



TESTIMONY TO JAPAN'S URGENT NEED 661 

should give it to them in ample measure. In the words of 
Mrs. Browning: 

"It is the hour for souls, 
That bodies, leavened by the will and love. 
Be lightened to redemption. The world^s old; 
But the old world waits the time to be renewed. 
Toward which new hearts in individual growth 
Must quicken, and increase to multitude 
In new dynasties of the race of men, 
Developed whence shall grow spontaneously 
New churches, new economies, new laws 
Admitting freedom, new societies 
Excluding falsehood; He shall make all new." 




The Heart of the Far East. 



I 



INDEX 



Abdication, Korean Emperor's, 202- 
203 

Adams, James E., 509, 515 

Agnosticism, 340 

Agreements, "Gentlemen's," 398; 
Ishii-Lansing, 410-415; see Treaties 

Agriculture, 9-10, 99, 233, 274, 307, 
359-360 

Ainu, 229-230 

Alexeieff, Admiral, 167, 168 

AUen, Horace N., 59, 62, 78, 199, 
501-502, 505 

Alliance, Anglo-Japanese, 174, 182, 
189-191 

Alphabet, 53, 75, 324-325 

America and Americans, 136, 174- 
176, 183, 252-263, 316; and China, 
431, 438; government of, 110, 183, 
185, 198-201; and Japan, 393 sq.; 
Japanese in, 394 sq.; and Korea, 
9, 40-44, 78-79, 501-502; and 
Manchuria, 214r-215; in Philip- 
pines, 342-343, 369, 370, 584; and 
Siberia, 449-451, 454, 460-461, 
464-465; South America, 394, 420, 
426, 428, 438; trade in Far East, 
280-282, 422 

Amur, 457 

Ancestors and ancestral worship, 70- 
71, 83-85, 244-247, 321, 328, 600 

Andong, 18 

Anglican Church, 504, 647 

Animism, 85-92, 509, 517 

Annexation, of Korea, 195 sq., 204- 
206,369 

Appenzeller, H. G., 503 

Arabs, 20 

Architecture, 49-50 

Armenians, 441 

Army, American, 266-267; Chinese, 
112 sq.; Japanese, 112 sq., 149, 254 
stf., 320, 405, 417-418; Korean, 35- 
36; Salvation, 379 

Arsenals, 434 

Art, Korean, 20, 53-55; Japanese, 
275-276 



063 



Assimilation, Japanese in Korea, 561, 

582-584, 609 
Association, Buddhist Protective, 

333; Buddhist Women's, 332; 

Buddhist Young Men's, 332; 

Young Men's Christian, 332, 349, 

505, 512, 526, 638-639 
Australia, Japanese in, 394; missions 

of, 504 
Autocracy, in America, 460-461; 

in Germany, 481; in Japan, 292 sg., 

583; in Russia, 177 
Avison, O. R., 93, 95, 103-105, 140, 

552 

Baghdad, 462 

Baikal, Lake, 127 

Banks, 282, 356, 422-423 

Baptism, 611, 618 

Bashford, James W., 414 

Beans, 212 

Belcher, Edwin, 39 

Bible, interpretation of, 546, 644, 

646, 651; in schools, 586 sq.; 

societies, 469-470, 505, 530, 638; 

translations of, 75, 549-550, 620, 

623, 638 
Blagovieschensk, 449, 464 
BHnd, 313, 472 
Bolsheviki, 453-454, 458-462 
Books, see Literature 
Brent, Charles H., 384 
Britain, Great, 134, 136, 174, 182, 

189-191, 387, 391, 404, 416, 419- 

421, 431-432, 435, 439, 441, 451, 

454 
Broughton, W. R., 15, 39 
Brown, J. McLeavy, 36, 134-136 
Brown, Samuel R., 394, 622, 623, 

638 
Bryce, James, 486 
Buck, Alfred E., 642 
Buddhism, 81-86, 289, 313, 328 sq., 

517, 629-630, 640, 653 
Bunker, Dalzell A., 78-79, 504, 509 



664 



INDEX 



California, Japanese in, 288, 395 sq., 
408, 582 

Canada, missions of, 505 

Cannon, 54, 112 

Carts, 100-101 

Cassini, Count, 174--175 

Castles, 259-260 

Casualties, in war, 265-272 

Cecil, Lord Robert, 451, 479 

Cemeteries, see Graves 

Census, 44 

Ceremonies, 601 

Chairs, 96-97 

Chamberlain, Basil H., 244-245 

Chang-chun, 212 

Chaplains, 628-629 

Chemulpo, 3, 13, 155 

Cheng-chiatun, 428-429 

China and Chinese, 6, 20-21, 23, 44, 
109 sq., 130, 189-190, 248-249, 
280-281, 293-294, 387-390, 444; 
and America, 478; Japanese in, 
394, 416 sq., 423-446; Koreans in, 
532; missionaries in, 469, 472-473, 
476, 487 sq.; and Siberia, 452, 454, 
465; and world war, 430 sq. 

Chosen, VI, see Korea 

Christianity and Christians, in Amer- 
ica, 626; in China, 469-470, 476, 
487 sq.; in Far East, 469-470; 
in France, 626; in England, 626; 
in Japan, 306, 315, 330, 336, 380, 
470, 474, 476, 539, 611-661; in 
Korea, 101-106, 487-610; inter- 
nationalism of, 478 sq. 

Christie, Dugald, 211-212 

Chung Yun Hoi, 349-350 

Chiu-ch, Anglican, 504; in Far East, 
469-470; Greek Orthodox, 484, 
619, 621, 647; Protestant, in Japan, 
622 sq., 643 sq.; in Korea, 506 sq., 
524 sq., 545 sq., 566 sq.; Roman 
Catholic, in Japan, 487 sq., 617, 
647; in Korea, 487 sq. 

Cities, Korean, 12-19, 23; see Kyoto, 
Osaica, Tokyo, etc. 

Civilization, and missionaries, 471 sq., 
476 

Clement, Ernest W., 377 

Cloisonne, 275 

Coal, 9, 208-209, 438 

College, Chosen Christian, 550, 603- 
605; medical, 552, 557-558, 604 

Combaz, J. G., 337 



Concessions, 48, 142-145, 152, 208, 

343, 417, 433 
Conferences, Methodist, 548-549; 

of rehgions, 629-630, 653 
Confucianism, 83-85, 600, 629 
Conspiracy, Korean, 344, 348, 534, 

565, 571-573 
Constitution, Japanese, 227, 627 
Conventions, see Treaties 
Co-operation, of missions and 

churches, 646 sq. ; see Union 
Copper, 9, 420 
Corfe, Charles J., 504 
Correspondents, war, 241-242 
Cotton, 48, 55-56, 64, 280-285, 360, 

404 
Council, Federated Mission, 594, 606 
Courts, 33-34, 344, 346, 359, 517, 

572, 585 
Creeds, 643 sq. ; see Theology 
Crime, 59 

Cromie, Francis, 460 
Crosby, Julia N., 315 
Crow, Carl, 240, 303, 408 
Currency, 282, 355 
Curzon, Lord, 45, 341 
Customs, Japanese, 234 sq.; Korean, 

64 s?.; see Tariff 
Czar, Russian, 130, 182, 191 
Czecho-Slovaks, 453-454, 456, 459 

Dairen (Dalny), 130-131, 132, 187- 

188,214 
Dancing-girls, see Gesang and Geisha 
Debts, national, 178, 181, 273-274, 

422, 431-432 
Delegates, Council of Soldiers' and 

Workmen's, 459 
Democracy, 292 sq., 460, 481 
Demons, 86-92, 103-104, 509, 517, 

556 
Diet, Japanese, 294 sq. 
Disease, 47, 87-92, 95, 265-272, 308, 

508 
Divorce, 316 
Docks, 12-13 
Doshisha, 290, 608-609 
Dress, Chinese, 280; Japanese, 234- 

235, 237; Korean, 18, 48, 64 sq., 

280, 374 
Dutch, in Korea, 37-38 
Duties, see Tariff 
Dynasty, Japanese, 244; Korean, 

26-27 



INDEX 



665 



Ebina, I., 306 

Edicts, anti-Christian, 614-617 

Education, in America, 597; in Great 
Britain, 597; in India, 597-598; 
industrial, 360, 553-554; in Japan, 
227, 315-316, 318 sq., 325-326, 333, 
588-590, 594; in Korea, 78-80, 
368, 516, 542, 549-555, 586 sq. 

Electricity, 228 

Emigration, Japanese, 149-151, 204, 
343, 360, 369-370, 394 sq., 417, 437, 
448; Korean, 57 

Emperors, Chinese, 21 sq., 109 sq., 
248; Manchu, 109, 116, 210; Japa- 
nese, 227, 244-247, 294-295, 303, 
319-320, 601-602, 623; Korean, 
22 sq., 26 sq., 48, 67, 78, 109 sq., 
126, 140 sq., 196-207, 250, 343, 502, 
518, 551 

Episcopal, Protestant, 622, 647, 650 

Espionage, 344-346 

Etiquette, Korean, 68 

Examinations, 323-324 

Expedition, Body-Snatching, 40, 42 

Exports, Japanese, 279 sq., 389 sq., 
420 sq., 447 sq. 

Extra-territoriality, 227-228 

Factories, 279-284, 308-312 
Ferr^ol, Jean-Joseph, 495-496 
Feudalism, 27, 49, 227, 229, 246, 259- 

260, 289-290 
Fisheries, 10-11, 151, 152, 188 
Flexner, Abraham, 386 
Flour, 213, 275, 280-281 
Folk-lore, 76 
Food, 47, 50-51, 55 
Foot-binding, 472 
Foreigners, in Far East, 93, 225 sq., 

231, 256, 276-278, 288, 371, 625 sq., 

641, 646 sq.', see Americans, British, 

etc. 
Forests and forestry, 7, 359 
Formosa, 129, 231 
France and French, 7, 9, 28, 36, 39- 

40, 44, 110, 118, 135-136, 419, 432, 

493, 496 
Fuji, Mt., 232 
Funerals, 68-71 
Fusan, 3, 12-13, 118, 152, 535 

GambHng, 51 
Geisha, 377, 383 
Genghis IChan, 25-26 



Genro, see Statesmen 

Gensan, 3, 8, 15 

George, Lloyd, 453 

Germany, 9, 190, 254, 306, 320, 416, 

419, 430 sq., 440, 448 sq., 458 
Gesang, 32, 51, 74-75 
Gibbon, Edward, 519 
GiUett, Phillip L., 505, 512 
Ginseng, 10 
Gold, 9 

Goodnow, Frank J., 436 
Goucher, John F., 503, 543 
Government, General, in Korea, 195 

sq., 341 sq., 354 sq., 559 sq., 586 sq.; 

Japanese, 249-250, 292 sq., 391, 629 

sq.; Korean, 27 sq., 109 sq., 348, 

362-363; ownership, 285, Western, 

see America, Britain, etc. 
Graves, 70, 84 
Greek Orthodox, Missions, 618 sq.; 

629, 647-648 
Griffis, WilUam EUiot, 20, 126, 247, 

471 
GuUck, Sidney L., 309-310, 395, 397, 

425 
Gutzlaff, Charles, 39, 500 

Hai Ju, 94-95 

Hall, Basil, 4, 39; M. J., 507-508 

Hamel, Hendrik, 38 

Han River, 5, 6, 23 

Hara, Kei, 304-305 

Harada, Tasuku, 634, 659 

Harbin, 128, 212-213 

Harbors, 3, 13, 15, 130, 132-133, 143, 

145 
Harris, Merriman C, 603; Townsend, 

393, 622 
Hasegawa, Viscount, 360 
Hats, Korean, 65, 69 
Hawaiian Islands, Japanese in, 394, 

405, 406, 408 
Heam, Lafcadio, 245, 655 
Hepburn, James C, 394, 622-623, 638 
Hiaksai, 23-24 
Hibiki, Nobusuke, 638, 659 
Hideyoshi, 112 sq., 613-614 
Hojin, 603-605 
Holcombe, Chester, 43, 153 
Holidays, 600 
Holt, William S., 501 
Honda, Masujiro, 653; Yoitsu, 634, 

649 
Horvath, General, 454 
Hospitality, 59-60, 100, 232 



666 



INDEX 



Hospitals, 469-470, 472, 502, 541, 
552, 556-558, 617, 628, 633, 640 

Houses, Japanese, 233-234; Korean, 
49, 73, 99 

Howard, Meta, M.D., 503 

Hulbert., Homer B., 78-79, 126, 140, 
198, 347 

Hymns, 332 

Ibuka, K., 320, 634, 643 

II Chin Hoi, 348-351 

Illegitimacy, 376 

Illiteracy, 76, 458 

Imbert, Laurent Marie- Joseph, 494- 

495 
Imbrie, William, 628, 632 
Immigration, see Emigration 
Immorality, Japanese, 308-309, 329- 

330, 336, 376 sq., 472; Korean, 51, 

74, 82; Russian, 169-170 
Imports, Japanese, 279 
Indemnities, 129, 180-181, 188, 399, 

431-432 
India, 293, 394, 420, 435, 442, 517- 

518, 597-598 
Inns, 100 

Inouye, Count, 628 
Insane, 472 
Intemperance, in Korea, 51 ; in Japan, 

313-314, 333 
Internationalism, and missions, 478 

sg. 
Inventions, 326 
Ireland, 442 
Iron, 9, 208-209, 438 
Ishii, Viscount K., 410-415, 427, 429 
Islands, 3-5 
Italy, 255-256 
Ito, Prince, 120, 125, 193, 196-197, 

203, 205, 351, 354-357, 562-563, 

576-577, 639, 658 
lyenaga, Toyokishi, 254, 418, 439 

Japan and Japanese, agriculture, 149, 
233, 274; Ainu in, 229; area, 149, 
231; army, 148 sq., 155 sq., 166 sq., 
257 sq. ; autocracy, 292 sq. ; cabinet, 
295 sq.; commerce, 151, 273 sg., 
419 sq.; constitution, 227; courts, 
227-228; customs, 234 sq.; democ- 
racy in, 292 sq.; education, 227, 
315-316, 318 sq., 325-326, 333, 588- 
590, 594; emperors, see Emperor; 
emigration, 149-151, 204, 343, 360, 
369-370, 394 sq., 417, 437, 448; ex- 



ports, 151, 273 sq., 404, 419 sq., 
432; feudalism, 227-229; finances, 
181; fisheries, 151-152; govern- 
ment, 244-247, 249-250, 292 sq., see 
Government; history, 229-230, 245; 
houses, 233-234; imports, 151, 404, 
423 sq., 432; and America, 226, 393 
sq.; and China, 111 sq., 389, 394, 
410 sq., 416 sq., 420, 423-446; and 
Great Britain, see Britain; and 
Korea, 7-18, 44, 47, 66-67, 109 sq., 
133 sq., 148 sq., 195 sq., 341 sq., 354 
sq., 559 sq.; and Manchuria, 212 sq.; 
and Russia, 127 sq., 148 sq.; and 
Siberia, 447 sq.; military strength, 
254 sq.; missions in, 469 sq., 611- 
661 ; manufactures, 273 sq. ; nation- 
alism, 586 sq.; navy, 112-114, 122, 
124 sq., 148, 155, 163-167; patriot- 
ism, 180, 192, 244-247, 251-253, 
264, 272; people, 225, 229-247, 250, 
264, 304, 326-327, 627, 644 sq., 652, 
655 sq.; population, 149, 231-232, 
275; railways, 227-228; post-offices, 
227; rehgions, see Buddhism, Chris- 
tianity, Confucianism, Shintoism; 
religious liberty, 627, 658-659; 
scenery, 232; shipping, 151; sol- 
diers, 160-162, 170-171; social con- 
ditions, 307 sg.; taxes, 180-181; tel- 
egraphs, 151, 228; theology in, 643 
sq. ; treaties, see Treaties; wars, with 
China, 112 sq.; with Korea, 112 sq.; 
with Russia, 148 sq., 166 sq., 178 
sq.; and European War, 416 sq, 

Jenks, Jeremiah, 413, 429, 432 

Jesuits, 611 sq. 

Jickie, 52 

Jinrikisha, 239 

Junks, 94 

Kamakura, 329 

Kaneko, Baron, 185 

Kangkai, 510 

Kang-wa, 4, 5, 504 

Kataoka, K., 634 

Kato, Viscount, 297, 304 

Katsura, Count, 176, 484, 627 

Kennan, George, 45, 633 

Kerosene. 56, 277-278 

Kija, 14, 20-23 

Kikuchi, Baron, 244, 325 

Kjm, Andrew, 495-496; Chang Sik, 

507 
Kindergartens, 633 



INDEX 



667 



Kirin, 24 

Kitan, tribes, 24, 25 

Knox, Philander, 215-218 

Kodama, General, 168 

Komatsu, M., 561, 591-596, 601, 603 

Komura, Count, J., 183-184, 186, 
216-217 

Kondraehenko, General, 158, 168 

Koo, V. K. Wellington, 412-413, 472, 
473, 477 

Korai, 23 

Korea and Koreans, annexation by 
Japan, 195 sq.; area, 3; Chris- 
tianity in, 500 sq., 524 sq., 539 sq. 
545 sq., 566 sq.; customs, 64 sq. 
education, 78 sq., 549-559, 571 
and China, 109 sq.) and Japan^ 
109 sq., 559 sq.; history, 20 sq. 
Japanese rule in, 341-375, 559- 
610; literature, 76 sq.; morphine 
in, 390-392; missions in, 469-538, 
621; and Russia, 127 sq.; people, 
20 sq., 44 sq., 64 sq., 97 sq., 250-251, 
351-353, 356, 363, 370, 516; popu- 
lation, 44; reUgions, 81 sq.; Strait, 
128, 163-164; students, 605; the- 
ology in, 539 sq.; trade, 280-281; 
training classes, 513, 521, 529-530; 
travelling in, 93 sq. 

Kumiai, churches, 633, 647 

Kunsan, 3, 19 

Kuroki, General, 155-156, 168 

Kuropatkin, General, 160, 161, 167, 
169-171 

Kyoto, 228, 231 

Labor, 307-312, 460-461, 526 
Lacquer, 276 

Ladd, George T., 45, 138, 346 
Land, ownership of, 278, 307-308, 

343, 359, 363, 396, 398, 628; titles, 

359, 364-365, 580-581 
Language, Chinese, 324-325; Eng- 

hsh, 237-238; Korean, 68, 75; 

Japanese, 324-325 
Lansing, Robert, 411-415 
La P^rouse Strait, 128 
Laundry, Korean, 65 
Lazareff, Port, 15 
Legations, withdrawn from Seoul, 

199-200 
Lepers, 472, 617 
Liao-tung, 130, 132, 148 
Liao-yang, 160 



Liberty, religious, 563, 591, 594. 596, 
627, 658-659 

Libraries, 76, 81, 318-319 

Liggins, John, 622 

Li Hung Chang, 117, 120, 122, 125, 
129, 148 

Linevitch, General, 161, 167, 169, 179 

Literature, Japanese, 318-319; Ko- 
rean, 76 

Loans, national, 419, 423, 433 

McKenzie, F. A., 242, 533-534, 642 

McWilliams, Daniel W., 501 

Magdalena, Bay, 286 

Magistrates, see Oflficials 

Makaroff, Admiral, 168 

Manchuria, 20-24, 129 sq., 148 sq., 
154, 175, 187, 191, 208-218, 390- 
391, 429, 452, 457, 465; missions in, 
532 

Manchus, 116-117 

Manufactures, 275 sq., 308-312, 422 

Maps, 38-39 

Marriage, 73, 314-316, 367, 584 

Martyrs, 488 sq., 614 sq. 

Masampo, 3, 143-144, 152, 154, 163 

Matheson, Hugh, 354 

Maubant, Pierre Philibert, 494 

Maxwell, Captain, 4 

Medicines, Korean, 87-92 

Methodists, 503, 505, 509, 511-512, 
530, 548, 553, 603, 647, 650 

Mexico, 286, 394, 441, 481-482, 465, 
598 

Mihtarism, 561 sq. 

Millard, Thomas F., 242 

Minerals, 8-9, 208-209 

Missionaries, Buddhist, in Korea, 334 
sq.; Greek CathoUc, in Japan, 484, 
618 sg.; in Korea, 621; Protestant, 
in China, 388; in Japan, 315, 319, 
333, 483-484, 622 sq.; in Korea, 
103-105, 497-498, 500 sq., 539 sq.; 
in Manchuria, 211-212; Roman 
Cathohc, in China, 487 sq.; in 
Japan, 226, 611 sq., 646 sq.; in 
Korea, 28, 58, 60-61, 487 sq.; and 
native churches, 525, 547 sq. ; atti- 
tude on education, 586 sq.; atti- 
tude on government, 349-350, 
408-409, 482-483, 559 sq., 582; 
influence of, 469 sq.; poUcy, 515 
sq., see Self-propagation and Self- 
support 

Mobs, 59, 193, 311 



668 



INDEX 



Moffett, Samuel A., 506, 531 

Mokpo, 3, 19 

Monasteries, 81-82 

Mongolia and Mongols, 24, 25, 26 

Money, 54, 227 

Monks, Buddhist, 82, 517 

Monroe Doctrine, 426-427 

Morgan, Edwin V., 199-200 

Mori, Kenkichi, 463 

Morphine, 387-392 

Motono, Viscount, 450 

Mountains, Diamond, 11, 81-82; 

Ever White, 5, 11; Fuji, 232; Pul 

Tai San, 102 
Mourning, 68-71 
Mukden, 162, 210-212, 214-215 
Munitions, 421-422, 424 
Murata, George S,, 345 
Murphy, U. G., 376, 379 
Murray, David, 320, 394 
Music, Korean, 536 

Nagamori, 343 

Nagoya, 259, 284 

Names, Korean, vi, 366-367 

Nara, 329 

Nationalism, 483-484, 560, 586 sq. 

Naturalization, 397 

Navy, Japanese, 256-257, 260-262, 

269, 320; Korean, 36, 54, 112-114 
Neesima, Joseph H., 634 
New-chwang, 212 
Nicolai, Archbishop, 618 sq. 
Nikko, 228, 232, 310 
Ni Tai jo, King, 26-27 
Nitobe, I., 314, 316, 323, 472, 634 
Nogi, General, 156-160, 161, 168 
Nuns, Buddhist, 328 
Nurses, 552, 558, 628, 633 

O'Dwyer, M. F., 442 

Officials, Chinese, 444; Japanese, 
342 sq., 354 sq., 380-381, 559 sq., 
593, 602, 605 sq., 609; Korean, 17- 
18, 32 sq., 48, 51, 68, 93, 361-368 

Okuma, Marquis, 226, 252, 272, 296- 
297, 301, 314, 324, 337, 396-397, 
399, 400, 402, 476, 637, 657 

Opium, 387-390, 472 

Ordinances, educational, 588, 591 sq. ; 
religious, 580 

Orphanages, 617, 633 

Osaka, 228, 231, 282-283, 379-380 

Oyama, Field-Marshal, 160, 168 

Ozaki, Y., 302, 304, 307 



Paper, 54 

Parents, respect for, 70-71, 83-84-, 
see Ancestors 

Parties, in Japan, 304-306 

Patriotism, Chinese, 248-249; Japa- 
nese, 244-247, 251-253, 264, 272; 
Korean, 250-251, 348 sq. 

Pavloff, M., 143 

Peerage, Japanese, 294-295; Korean, 
368 

Perry, Matthew C, 226, 393 

Persecution, in Japan, 226, 613 sq., 
624 sq.; in Korea, 488 sq., 507 sq., 
534-535, 567 

Persia, 293, 517-518 

Phihppines, 342-343, 369, 370, 381, 
403, 405-408, 441, 584 

Pierson Memorial, 551 

Pilgruns, Buddhist, 82 

Poetry, Korean, 76-78 

Police, 344, 380, 564 sq., 585, 593 

Pony, Korean, 97-98 

Pope, 492-493 

Porcelain, 275 

Port Arthur, 129, 155-160, 169, 187- 
188, 220-221, 288 

Ports, 3, 12, 15, 130, 143, 378 

Portsmouth, treaty of, 178 sq. 

Post-offices, 227, 502 

Pottery, 54-55 

Poverty, 48 sq., 517, 526 

Prayer, 527-529, 545 

Premillenarianism, 540-541 

Presbyterians, 501, 504-505, 547- 
549, 643 

Press, American, 407; Japanese, 192- 
193, 237, 241-242, 301-302, 319, 330, 
408, 634, 639; Korean, 345-346 

Priests, Buddhist, 82, 328 sq.; Greek 
Orthodox, 618 sq. ; Roman Cath- 
olic, 487 sq., 611 sq.; Shintoist, 
329, 337-340 

Printing, 53, 318, 470 

Prisons, 313 

Prostitution, see Immorahty 

Protestants, in China, 470; in Japan, 
470, 622 sq., 643 sq. ; in Korea, 470, 
497-498, 500 sq., 524 sq. 

Puhai, 24 

Punishments, 33-35, 58, 227, 313 

Pyengyang, 6, 14-15, 124, 155, 506- 
509, 520, 528, 543, 605 

Queen, Korean, 137-140 
Quelpart, 4, 531 



INDEX 



669 



Railways, in China, 249, 417-418, 
439; in Japan, 237-238, 285, 287; 
in Korea, 12, 135-136, 144, 151- 
152; in Manchuria, 129, 187, 212, 
215-218, 220, 227-228; Trans- 
Siberian, 127-128, 457 

Red Cross, 312-313, 640 

Reforms, in Japan, 309, 312-317, 348 
sq., 354 sq. 

Reinsch, Paul S., 438 

Religions, conference of, 629-630, 
653; in schools, 321, 586 sqy, see 
Animism, Buddhism, Christianity, 
Confucianism, Shamanism, Shin- 
toism 

Rescript, unperial, 320-321, 325 

Revivals, 509 sq., 543-546, 570, 632 

Revolution, Chinese, 248, 443-444; 
Korean, 348 sq. ; and missionaries, 
475, 570; Russian, 177, 447, 453 sq. 

Rice, 233, 360 

Rivers, 5-7 

Roads, 96, 101, 145 

Rodgers, Admiral John, 23, 40-42, 
110 

Rojestvensky, Admiral, 162-165, 168 

Roman Catholics, 28, 58, 60, 61, 136- 
137, 470, 487 sq., 611 sq., 629, 647 

Roosevelt, President, 183, 185, 198, 
201, 205, 405 

Root, Ehhu, 200-201, 410 

Rosen, Baron R., 183-184, 185 

Ross, John, 500, 510 

Russia and Russians, army, 156 sq., 
170-172; Boxer indemnity, 432; 
education in, 322; in Korea, 36, 
39, 127 sq., 148 sq., 363; in Man- 
churia, 210, 215-219; missionaries 
of, 484, 618 sq.; revolution in, 177, 
447 sq., 481; in Siberia, 447 sq.', 
trade with Japan, 421-422; war 
with Japan, 148 sq., 178 sq. 

Sacrifices, 84-85, 600-601, see Ances- 
tors 

Saghalien, 186, 187-188, 191, 192, 
231 

Sakuma, Lieut. T., 263 

Sakurai, Lieut. T., 264 

Salvation, Army, 379 

Samurai, 180, 290, 633-634 

Sanitation, 46-47, 233, 265-272, 308, 
363, 472, 508, 542, 556 

Satow, Ernest, 474-475 



Scenery, Japanese, 232; Korean, 11- 

12, 95 sq., 102-103 
Scherer, James A. B., 395, 398, 410 
Schley, Winfield Scott, 41 
Schools, in America, 597; in Great 

Britain, 497; in China, 469-470, 

473; in India, 597-598; in Japan, 

58&-590, 594, 617, 623, 625, 628, 

633; in Korea, 78-80, 360, 368, 

503, 516, 542, 549-555, 571, 586 sq. 
Schufeldt, R. W., 43 
Scranton, William B. and Mrs. M. F., 

503 
Sea, Japan, 128 
Segregation, 380, 385-387 
Sekiya, Teisaburo, 591, 604 
Self-government, 515 
Self-propagation, 515, 522, 529 sq., 

537 
Self-support, 515, 521-522, 526-527, 

537, 647-648 
Seoul, 6, 16-18, 26, 382-383, 509 
Serfdom, 49 
Severance, Louis H. and John L., 552, 

604 
Seward, George F., 40 
Shamans, see Sorcerers 
Sherman, the General, 40-42, 110 
Shibusawa, Baron E., 400-401 
Shidehara, Tan, 586 
Shimada, S., 474, 476 
Shinra, 23, 24, 114 
Shintoism, 228, 321, 329, 337-340, 

629-630, 637, 640, 654 
Shipping and shipyards, 13, 228, 279, 

284, 286-287, 422 
Shogun, 226-227 
Shrines, 338-339, 377 
Siberia, 394, 447 sq. 
Silk, 48, 64, 276, 280, 282, 360, 404 
Slavery, 49 

Smith, Arthur H., 430, 446 
Socialism, 312, 460-461 
Society, Bible, 469-470, 505, 530, 638; 

Korean Tract, 550; Propagation 

of Gospel, 504 
Soldiers, Japanese, 260-262, 288, 342, 

345; Russian, 288 
Sone, Viscount, 357, 562 
Songdo, 18 

Sorai, 101-102, 510-511 
Sorcerers, 88-92, 106 
Soviets, 459, 461 
Spies, 344-346 
Standard Oil Co., 277-278 



670 



INDEX 



Statesmen, Elder, 295 sq., 306 
Statues, Buddhist, 328 sq. 
Stevens, Durham White, 351, 563 
Stoessel, General, 158-160 
Strikes, 311 
Students, Japanese, 325-326, 637, 

653; Korean, 326, 353, 605 
Suffrage, in Japan, 294, 307 
Suicide, 196, 309-311, 332 
Sunday, 571, 578-579, 602 
Sunday-schools, Buddhist, 331-332; 

Christian, 525, 527 
Sungari, 457 
Sunto, 25 

Supemationalism, 482-485 
Superstition, 14, 85-92, 103-104, 556 
Surgery, 90, 103-105, 267-272, 556 
Surprise, the, 40 
Syenchyun, 510, 554, 564-565, 568, 

592-593 

Taft, William H., 370, 471, 477 

Tagawa, D., 301-302 

Taiku, 18, 361, 509 

Tai-wen-kun, 28-29, 43, 119, 122, 137, 

139, 496 
Takahira, K., 183 
Tariff, 36, 285-286, 432 
Tatong River, 6, 21 
Taxes, 34^35, 48, 180-181, 274, 294, 

307, 382-383 
Telegraphs, 151, 227 
Temperance, 313-314 
Temples, in Korea, 81 ; in Japan, 328- 

330, 333, 335 
Terauchi, Count Seiki, 13, 205, 297 

sg., 305, 344, 357-360, 368, 369, 562 

sq., 596, 605 
Theology, in Japan, 539 sq., 643 sq.; 

in Korea, 539 sq. 
Tides, 3, 4. 
Tigers, 8 

Tunbep, 142, 144-145 
Titles, see Land 
Tobacco, 55 
Togo, Admiral H., 155, 163-166, 168, 

246-247, 263 
Tokonami, Takejiro, 306, 629-630 
Tokyo, 228, 231 
Tong-haks, 60-63, 121 
Topknots, 52, 65^8, 362, 374. 
Torture, 33-35, 58 
Trade, American, 404; British, 451; 

Japanese, 273 sq.; 419 sq.; Korean, 

48; missionaries and, 471 



Training-classes, 513, 521, 529-530 

Translations, see Bible 

Travel, in Korea, 93 sq., 352, 512-513 

Travellers, Western, 641 

Treaties, American-Korean, 23, 43, 
110, 500; American- Japanese, 393, 
396, 398, 410-415; Austrian-Ko- 
rean, 43; British-Chinese, 387; Brit- 
ish-Japanese, 174, 182, 189-191, 
404; British-Korean, 110; Chinese- 
European, 432; French-Korean, 
43; German-Korean, 43; Ger- 
man-Russian, 453, 462; Italian- 
Korean, 43; Japanese-Chinese, 120, 
125, 129, 452; Japanese-Korean, 
195-198, 203-205; Japanese-West- 
ern, 227; Russian-Chinese, 130, 132, 
465; Russian-Korean, 43, 142; Rus- 
sian-Japanese, 134-135, 178 sq., 
217-218, 456. 

Tribute, Korean, 109-112, 115-116, 
118 

Tripoli, 255-256 

TroUope, M. N., 604 

Trotzky, Leon, 460-462 

Tsing-tau, 381-382, 416 

Tsuda, Ume, 631, 634 

Tsugaru, strait, 128 

Tsushima, 12, 128, 134 

Tuck, G. L., 389 

Tumen River, 5-6 

Turkey, 293, 441, 517, 518, 598 

Turner, H. B., 504 

Uchida, Viscount Y., 305-306 

Uemura, M., 634, 647 

Underwood, Horace G., 91, 140, 503, 

506, 508, 510, 550-551; Mrs. H. G., 

47, 67, 504. 
Union, church, 549; educational, 550- 

552 
Universities, 322, 323, 653 
Un-mun, 75-76 
Unsan, mines, 9 
Usami, K., 591, 604 

Verbeck, Guido S., 394, 472, 622, 623, 

638 
Vice, 51, 236, 308-309, 313, 329-330, 

376 sq., 383-384, 474 
Villages, Korean, 12, 19, 46, 99 
Vladivostok, 15, 57, 128, 450, 451, 

454, 460, 462, 463, 464 

Wages, 285 
Wang, C. T., 473 



INDEX 



671 



War, China- Japan, 14, 112 aq., 248, 
273-274, 474, 507-508, 518; China- 
Korea, 112 sq.] European, 271, 335, 
339-340, 416 sq., 430 sq., 479, 481; 
Japan-Korea, 54, 112 sq.; Russia- 
Japan, 148 sq., 255, 264-270, 288, 
407, 474, 484, 619-620, 628 

Watanabe, Noboru, 361 

Watson, W. Petrie, 656-657 

Weltervree, Jan, 37-38 

Wiju, 15-16, 494 

Williams, Channing R., 622 

Wilson, President, 455, 457, 460, 461, 
463, 480-481, 486, 599 

Wipyung Society, 340-350 

Witte, Count Sergius, 183-184, 186, 
191, 192, 193 

Women, in Japan, 314-317, 332, 376 
sq,; in Korea, 72-75, 99, 654 



Worship, of Emperor, 601-602; see 

Ancestors 
Wright, Luke E., 642 

Xavier, Francis, 225, 611-613 

Yajima, Madame, 317, 380, 634 
Yalu River, 5, 15-16, 25, 144-145 
Yamagata, Prince, 298 
Yangbans, 17, 18, 32 s?,. 48, 51, 68, 

374 
Yi, Prince, 207, 367, see Emperor 
Yokohama, 232 
Yongampo, 3, 145-146 
Yuan Shih Kai, 111, 293-294, 424- 

425, 476 
Yun Chi Ho, 571, 572 



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